I am a professional writer, and I actually learned about this toolbar via a press release. I thought, “A toolbar? I don't need another toolbar?” Curiosity got the best of me, so I visited the website at http://www.toolbarformarines.com. What I found there was an extremely creative idea that was win-win for everyone. It has excellent tools that make my daily life easier, it generates money for a cause that I strongly support, and anyone, not just Marines, can take advantage of the cost saving tools built into this toolbar. It’s such a sharp idea, and it costs you nothing.

The toolbar has links to things like USMC information and deployment related sites, but mostly it is built with time-saving links to sites that everybody uses like Mapquest.com, Youtube.com, cnn.com, and Ebay.com. Here is my favorite money-saving part. They built in a shopping menu with affiliate links to stores in practically every category from Autos to Wedding Planning. This menu has a built in feature which gives you the latest coupons, prices, and promotions available at the moment that you are shopping-all in one place. When you purchase anything, the toolbar generates revenue because of the agreements that the two founders negotiated with the merchants linked to the toolbar. Even if all you do is to conduct your daily internet searches through the Google search box that they built into the toolbar, you are still generating revenue!

The two girls that founded the site are girlfriends of Marines. “We wanted to develop something to make the deployment experience positive in some way,” said Elle Robertson, co-founder of the toolbar website. They donate half of the proceeds to Toys for Tots (supporting children), SemperFiFund.org (supporting injured Marines), and SupportOurTroops.org (supporting deployed Marines). My hat is really off to these two ladies. What a creative idea! I have been using my OfficialUSMCToolbar everyday for about three weeks now and I love it. This toolbar saves me time and money, while donating to an admirable cause. I had to write about this toolbar, because I support our troops, and I wanted others like me to know about it. To learn more, or to download the toolbar, simply visit http://officialusmc.ourtoolbar.com/.