The only preference set you need to worry about is the General preferences. The toolbar is there for your convenience, all of the functions of toolbar buttons can be accessed via the drop menus. You can configure the toolbar to your liking. You will see several thumb tab folders, but the first one is all you need. Look at Show toolbar as and set the options you want.
Most people use the toolbar.
Links are usually blue in colour and underlined so as to stand out from the other text on a web page. Both types have their merit. This method can be useful because information on a similar topics is grouped together, much like departments in a department store. With this search engine you can find groups of words in any catagory. Unfortunately, the number of matches with this type of search engine can be staggering, but there are ways to narrow your search.