It’s easy to overlook toolbars. However, toolbars can be insanely profitable. It is estimated that some  companies are earning well over $20.00 per toolbar user, per year.

Interesting post over at The Paradigm Shift looks at the companies making money out of toolbars, including Google, Ask Jeeves, FunWebProducts, and the effect of Windows Vista on this market.

“Ever wonder how Ask Jeeves ACTUALLY makes money? Well they do it via the massive adware/toolbar/mysearch install more commonly known as smileycentral.com.”