"Google Suggest" Search Plug-in
I posted an entry in my blog about a week ago regarding the inclusion of a Google Suggest search plug-in with the alpha release of Firefox 2.0. Natalie wrote to me to let me know that she had seen such a search plug-in available for the 1.x releases of Firefox. I decided to locate such a plug-in but was unsuccessful. The reason: Google pulled it. Their motivation: it was a compelling feature, and its absence might pressure more people to download and install the Google Toolbar (I have nothing against toolbars in a technical sense, but I think that they can be invasive and unnecessary).
I think this reflects poorly on Google since the availability of a Google Suggest search plug-in doesn't significantly compete with Google's business-model. It does, however, reduce the amount of user machine's that are 0wn3d by the Google Toolbar and reporting browser activity back to the mother-ship.