Winamp now comes with a long awaited toolbar which makes it easy for you to to interact with the features of Winamp player away ( approximately ) and increase the interaction with Winamp tools and features. If you install a new version, toolbar for Firefox and IE comes preloaded with option to not install it else you can download it separately from the site.
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, Vide0 and Shoutcast radio search. If you are a big fan of Shoutcast this will be handy. Its integrated with AOL Search but crafted well. I was able to list couple of music for free like 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.
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. Also don’t miss our 5 plus 3 Tips to increase productivity with Winamp if you are a hardcore Winamp user
There is no reason for winamp to sneak onto the browser. Browser toolbars are horrible. I loathe them.