Here are four google favlets for basic tasks. drag them to your toolbar. they will 'install' there by becoming editable .url files in your IE 5+ favorites. favlets are bookmarks of urls containing general purpose javascript. all are set to open new browser windows with attributes and sizes that work for me.
these pick up the url of the current page and format google queries about it:
_Google Related _Google Links _Google Cache
this one uses the currently selected text to initiate a phrase search:
_Google Selected
these favlets (more) are inspired by Mike Krus's RadioExpress. (see the javascript object model page for window.open options.) Happy googling!