Nipponster’s Japanese Toolbar
08. Mar, 2009
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Nipponster recently updated their “Japanese toolbar,” which now includes my Top Ten List of Free Japanese Resources in an easy to access tab. After I was notified, I fired up a non-beta version of Firefox to try it out (also works on other browsers), and came away pretty impressed. It really puts together a lot of useful resources for Japanese learners and enthusiasts, all in one place. Here are some of the features you’ll see if you give it a whirl.
Search
Although you probably have a search bar built right into your browser (if you’re a good Firefox user, anyways), Nipponster has its own search if you want to put in a generalized keyword and get only Japanese related things back. Not sure that this is the most useful function, but it’s there for those who want to use it.
Tools Section
This dropdown gives you quick links to Japanese dictionaries, Kanji of the day, Rikaichan, and more. These are all things you could set up on your own, but doesn’t mean it’s not a good list of tools!
Radio and TV
This is probably the section that makes the toolbar standout. There are some quick links that let you listen to Japanese radio or watch Japanese TV. I haven’t gotten either to work, and I think the problem might be that I have a mac (and Japanese websites hate macs, those dirty racists).
Japan Links
Great list of links and resources here, including my top ten list, which are worth checking out even if you don’t want the toolbar. I definitely found a few gems here!
RSS Feeds
There are two feeds here – one is the DailyJ Feed, and the other is the “J-blog BIG feed.” The big feed is just a feed of all the J-blogs put together, including the Tofugu Feed. Via the toolbar you can see updates come in as they happen.
JapanSoc It!
If you haven’t seen JapanSoc yet, you should check it out. It’s a lot like Digg, but for Japan related things. There’s a Soc It button on the toolbar to make uprating Japan articles quick and easy.
Other
There are gadgets, e-mail, and weather spots on the toolbar, but they don’t really do much and aren’t worth mentioning, unless you’re a fan of sudoku and don’t know what temperature it is outside.
Overall, this is a pretty cool toolbar. Normally I’m not a fan of these kinds of things, but I also haven’t seen a toolbar so focused on Japan and Japanese learning. I probably won’t be using the toolbar myself, but I could see it being really useful for someone who doesn’t have all these links and resources set up already, or for someone who’s looking for more Japan/Japanese-related gems! If you’re game, you can download and install the Japanese toolbar anytime.
Also check out the Daily J for Japan-web related news (they’re the ones who made the toolbar).
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