Yahoo Inc. today said its free spyware detection and removal application, Yahoo Anti-Spy, will soon be available to Windows Firefox users through its browser toolbar. The company has offered Yahoo Toolbar for Firefox since February, but users of the open-source browser haven't had access to all the features available to those who use the toolbar with Microsoft's Internet Explorer. One of those features, popup blocking, comes built into Firefox.

This show of support from Yahoo suggests that Firefox is gaining traction in the marketplace. While only about 8% of global Internet users favor Firefox, usage in the blog community appears to be considerably higher. At some sites, Firefox users outnumber those browsing with Internet Explorer.

Yahoo also said today it will make its toolbar available for the Mac and Linux systems, though without Anti-Spy. The Yahoo Toolbar offers button and bookmark customization, one-click RSS subscription, search history, translation, Web search, and Yahoo Mail alerts.

According to a company spokesperson, the updated software was scheduled to be available Tuesday evening.

Internet metrics company ComScore Networks Inc. reports that more queries came from the Yahoo Toolbar in February than any other toolbar. A9, AOL, Google, and MSN are among the companies that offer competing browser toolbars.