Microsoft Releases Toolbar Suite

Philipp Lenssen writes "Microsoft today released the MSN Toolbar Suite Beta. This brings true desktop search to Windows (for those who don't have Google Desktop Search or similar software running already) and also includes features like search term highlighting in web pages, auto-completing of forms, and a pop-up blocker."

Comments

Misc. notes

[IO ERROR]

Requires Internet Explorer and Windows 2000 or XP.

May conflict with other pop-up blockers and cause you to not be able to click on anything at all.

The toolbar has to be on-screen for pop-up blocking to work.

Needs administrator privileges to install.

Includes a plugin to search PDF files.

Includes desktop search.

Currently supports U.S. English only. Don't try to install it on a non-U.S. English version of Windows.

Paul Thurrott's review

[DavidLeblond]

I just checked out Paul Thurrott's review. I love reading his stuff... first he says that Apple copied Spotlight from Microsoft (because Microsoft said that they were gonna improve search before Apple introduce Spotlight), then he shows off MSN Search which looks suspiciously like Spotlight. And if thats not funny enough, he gives us this little gem:

And then consider that competitors such as Apple and Google tried to preempt Microsoft by announcing similar features, and yet were both unable to deliver final versions before Microsoft simply shipped the MSN Toolbar Suite.

Thats funny... isn't MSN Search a... beta? So "final version" = "beta"? Explains a lot!

Re:'desktop search' functionality?

[g0qi]

I can't believe there isn't a proper response to this. Only in Slashdot will people walk right past this silently.

I just downloaded and installed this thing. 4.some megs for what appears to be an IE plugin. There doesn't seem to be the option to make the 'search' bar integrate with the taskbar at all (which was what my initial pre-install impression was).
You know it's more than an IE plugin. Did you even attempt to look around? Right-click your taskbar, select toobars and you'll see MSN Deskbar there. It actually integrates very nicely with the OS.

I will say that I'd half expected for there to be a minimalist appearance. Nay, there's about 10 different buttons on the bar that gets installed in IE, and I was initially pestered with 2 desktop bar-specific nags. Additionally, the damn thing defaults to searching the web, not the desktop.

What are you smoking? The deskbar defaults to searching the desktop by default, and so does that IE page.

So I've been sitting here for about 10 minutes waiting for the thing to build an index. The Google Destop Search tool has about 40Mb of files on this machine, and I honestly don't think I've got much more than (if even) 1Gb of files on it. I've run a search for a couple files within the "My Documents" directory, and nothing turned up. There's no indication that the index is being built, or when it might be done, etc.

Actually I think there's too much indication. First when it starts off it says it's starting. Then when there's too much processor use, it says it's going to wait a while so you can get done what you want to get done. When it's actually indexing, you get a nice blinking maginfying glass. And finally when it's all done, it says it's done with a messenger like popup icon. All through this process, at any time when you hover over that icon, it tells you what the hell it's doing.

There also doesn't appear to be must customization ability for the actual search tool, either. Just build, or rebuild the index. No "exclude directory" type stuff. Come on man. Right-click that damn thing and select Internet Options...

Not impressed in the least.
You have an IQ of a peanut. I don't think they're going to care if you're impressed or not. Who modded you up +4?

Re:Bundled Soon?

[Trepalium]

Microsoft - first microcomputer software company
I don't know who was 'first', but Microsoft was founded in 1975. Gary Kildall's CP/M dates back to 1973 or 1974. Digital Research Inc., the company that was founded to sell CP/M was also founded in 1975.

AOL - one of the original online services
CompuServe predates AOL by quite a bit. CompuServe was founded in 1969. The company ("The Source") that would eventually become AOL was founded in 1978.

Intel - first microprocessor company
Sony - first widespread transistor radio company
Texas Instuments was probably the first to develop both these technologies. The microprocessor situation is fuzzy at best. TI's transistor radio predates Sony's by about three years (and Robert Denk's radio may have predated that by another 6 years). Sony's wasn't even first-to-market. That honor belonged to I.D.E.A's Regency TR-1.

Frankly, I don't think there's any 'first mover advantage' in these examples at all. On the other hand, there's a very real ability for the dominant companies to use their marketing muscle to 'rewrite' history in their favor. Few people question the 'fact' that Microsoft was the first software company, or that Intel invented the microprocessor, or that AOL was the first online service.