Expand your browser with eBay's custom toolbar application.
The eBay Toolbar, shown in Figure 2-9, is a free add on program that provides a handy search box, several desktop "alert" features, and quick access to many My eBay features.
Figure 2-9. The eBay Toolbar provides several handy tools, primarily useful for bidders, such as two "alert" features not otherwise available to non-toolbar-equipped browsers
Provided you're running recent versions of Windows and Internet Explorer, you can download the eBay Toolbar at pages.ebay.com/ebay_toolbar. (Users of Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, or any browser on Unix, Linux, or a Mac are unfortunately out of luck.)
In addition to providing handy links to My eBay, various eBay Search pages, the PayPal home page, and a few other hot spots, the eBay Toolbar also has some features you won't find elsewhere:
The Search textbox keeps a history of the last few searches you've typed (up to 25), which can be a quick and easy way to save past searches [Hack #20] . But you have to use it exclusively, as it doesn't link up with your My Favorite Searches list, nor will it list any searches typed into the eBay site itself.
Bid Alerts notify you 10, 15, 30, 60, or 75 minutes before the end of an auction on which you've bid, which is useful if you wish to return to the auction to bid again and ensure a win. Included in the Bid Alerts menu is a handy list of all the open auctions on which you've placed at least one bid; click Refresh Bid List if it appears to be out of date.
Watch Alerts work just like Bid Alerts, but apply to items in the Items I'm Watching list [Hack #29] , as opposed to items on which you've already bid. Use this feature to remind you to place a bid on items that interest you, or to set up a snipe bid [Hack #26] before it's too late.
Let the eBay Toolbar alert you whenever someone else has outbid you on a listing. Be wary of this feature, as it's easy to let it bait you into a bidding war with another member. Instead, try sniping [Hack #26] if you're worried about being outbid.
Do you ever get those suspicious-looking emails asking you to "verify" your account? If you don't feel comfortable just ignoring these spoofed email messages, you can rely on the eBay Toolbar to let you know when you're viewing a genuine eBay page and when you're not. The Account Guard button turns green when you're seeing a real eBay or PayPal page, red if you're seeing a potential spoof site [Hack #25] , or gray when the toolbar doesn't know what you're looking at. Naturally, you shouldn't type your eBay ID and password into your browser unless the proverbial light is green. Better yet, don't ever click any links you find in email messages; rather, type the address of the site (e.g., ebay.com) into your browser's address bar or use a toolbar button you trust.
Finally, there's a certain cachet to using a customized, feature rich toolbar right on your browser that simply isn't available anywhere else.
If you're a Windows 95, Mac, or Unix user, or if you use Mozilla, Firefox, or Opera on any platform, there's a very simple alternative to the eBay Toolbar. Both Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox have a fully customizable Links toolbar, which can hold not only links to web pages, but sport neat drop-down menus into which those links can be organized. See "Find Similar Items" [Hack #14] for a snazzy little example.