I stumbled across this Blastoff Toolbar while surfing the internet yesterday. I downloaded it without really knowing what all the features were…there didn’t seem to be any explanation of the features but what the heck, everything else with Blastoff has been cool to use so why not the Toolbar. Well, I had no idea how cool it was until I started exploring the bar and using all of the features!
Blastoff Search Bar:This search bar is powered by Google! I ran some searches using the Blastoff Toolbar and compared them to the exact same search directly on Google’s homepage. The search results from both the Blastoff and Google search garnered similar content and links. The Blastoff Toolbar will now be used as my main search engine!
Games:The Games drop down box has all kinds of ready to play such as Sudoku, Reversi, Tic Tac Toe, Simon, Puzzle Games and Adventure Games. I just played a game of Connect 4. It popped up a small window to play on without leaving the site I was on (I was logged into my blog while playing)…and, I won the game in 2 minutes! I didn’t have to download any special software for the game to run or wait more than a couple of seconds for it to load. Great feature when you have a couple of minutes to spare!
TV Channels:Have you ever watched TV from Germany? I just watched the GameTV in German… It looked like it was a Sims type of show where these two german guys are speaking in the background while applying makeup to a Sim Woman’s face…very odd and fun at the same time. I also watched the Wildlife Channel from the UK…Why does everything sound better with an english accent? I learned about Birding in Sri Lanka, Israel, Lesbot, etc… Kinda boring birds to be honest but I loved being able to view this stuff easiliy. For good measure, I did watch some US Shows such as Bloomberg TV. I was learning more about the Iran Nuclear Issue and Obama’s foreign policy. I haven’t figured out how to pick some shows of my own choosing yet but I’m sure there will be some option for this in the future. Very cool stuff!
Gadgets:Do you want to know what your IP Address is? Just click on the “Show My IP” button. What the heck is LabPixies TV? I had no idea so I clicked on it, downloaded the ActiveX option to make this program work with my system. It looks like a TV with knobs on the bottom to choose a station to watch. I watched C Span, NASA TV (the guys on the Space Station doing their day to day activities), E-Music didn’t work, Research Stationand Bloomberg TV buttons did. I need to explore them all so I know what I have at my disposal. Interesting option!
Weather:Click on the little picture of the clouds or sun. You can choose what location you want as your default. Right now it is 56 and partly sunny in Mukilteo! You can also find out what your extended forcast is!
Music:I’ve only played with this a little but if you click on the dropdown arrow you can select to listen to pre-set options like Radio IO – 80’s – Which is my favorite! You can also run searches for other stations to listen to such as Radio Disney for the kiddos, Local Stations, Spanish and other non-english stations, etc. Very neat feature…try it out for yourself!
Messages:I think that this will be messages from the Blastoff Community. Since it appears that I seem to be one of the few people to know about this feature there is no one for me to test this feature out with… I’ll keep checking this one for content.
Email Notifier:I didn’t set up my email thru this because I have 5 different email addresses all feeding thru Microsoft Outlook which I always have on with an email alert so, for me, this feature probably won’t be used. Try this feature out and let me know what you think of it!
Facebook:I’ve clicked on the Facebook button but this feature either isn’t working 100% yet or I didn’t do something right. I’ll keep trying to get this one to work.
Blastoff Chat:If you click on the dropdown arrow you can see how many people are in the various chat rooms. When I checked it out there were 14 people, speaking a language I didn’t understand, in the News room, 1 in the Teenager room and 2 in the both the Music and Video Game rooms…I didn’t participate in the chatting because I’m not big on them, but there were active discussions going on. If you are into chatrooms then you’ll probably love this.
There are other features as well but these are the main ones. I did find a ‘HELP’ page that answers a lot of questions about how to use and get around the Blastoff Toolbar. Check it out HERE.
Have fun exploring!
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