In the recent version , Winamp ( download Winamp from here) now comes with a long awaited toolbar which makes it easy for you to keep away the Winamp player away ( approximately ) and increase the interaction with Winamp tools and features. Its a little heavy with 14mb setup but worth if you are really into Winamp.

The tool bar is broken into 3 parts: Namely Search , Tools and the player control which you can see in the picture above.

Impressive Search Bar

The search is pretty impressive with the type of searches it has. Right from Web to Audio, Vide and Shoutcast radio search. If you are a big fan of Shoutcast this will be handy.

The search result are pretty impressive. Its integrated with AOL Search but crafted well. I was able to list couple of music for free like the one which is shown below, Backstreet boys music search. You can even download the mp3 songs.

Tools – Innovative and more interactive

The tools section which includes finding Winamp skins and plugins are superb. Probably man people don’t look for Winamp skins as they need to do one more step extra. This way you can search a lot of skins and plugins for Winamp and stay away from spammy sites.

Next in tools is Media which is terrific. It shows the featured video and audio. The music is free to play which is attractive. On top of that they show the artist picture which is cool.

Shoutcast is integrated with Winamp which shows the latest on the media.

Player Control – Not impressive

The player control gets integrated with toolbar and your browser. My first thought was it would let people keep the Winamp actual player off and just use the toolbar but was not that way. Being a little heavy it creates a negative impact on the use.

On click the play button it brings the payer button it brings up the Winamp player. If you minimize it goes to the taskbar occupying some space. However there is a way to move it out if Taskbar. Just got to preferences and under general set the show Winamp in to system tray. This way your Winamp will be off the tray bar but still running in the background.

Conclusion

Overall Winamp toolbar is very impressive and useful for Winamp lovers. I would give a 3 out of 5 for it. Aso don’t miss our 5 plus 3 Tips to increase productivity with Winamp if you are a hardcore Winamp user