Yahoo's new browser toolbar is the opposite of what Marissa Mayer needs right now

Remember browser toolbars? You know, those things that you didn’t mean to install but somehow they still got on there and then you frustratingly tried to get rid of? And if you couldn’t get rid of it, it would make your browser ugly and sluggish?

Yahoo just released a new one of those. For some reason.

With Marissa Mayer at the helm of Yahoo now for more than a year, we’ve seen positive changes coming from this company. New projects are being hatched often and the company is placing a huge emphasis on mobile, like its also-released-today Weather app for Android. Apps like Weather and the revamped Yahoo Mail may not be revolutionary, but they are at least a step in the right direction.

But this toolbar is clearly not part of that vision, no matter how much Yahoo tries to convince us. The company writes:

The browser is your window to the world, and it’s your way of navigating the things that you do daily. The Yahoo! Toolbar helps you get to what matters the most to you – faster and easier. We’re proud to announce a brand new Toolbar update in the U.S. for both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and that we’re bringing it to Chrome for the first time.

Whether you want quick access to search, email, local weather, or world and financial news, the Toolbar gets you there, no matter where you are on the web. You can even check in on what your friends on social networks are doing with one simple click.

Now, we’ll grant that this version of the toolbar is better than what Yahoo offered before. And sure, the 80,000 grandparents who still use the Yahoo toolbar will probably be thrilled with the new one.

But really, this seems like something Yahoo should be retiring just like it has done with other crappy apps that don’t serve much purpose any longer.