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Microsoft Releases Toolbar Suite

Posted by timothy on from the pretty-soon-it-will-be-a-trend dept.

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."

12 of 476 comments (clear)

  1. Bundled Soon? by fembots · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who wants to bet that this suite is going to be bundled in the next Windows? It's pretty easy for them to integrate this toolbar into any Windows-apps like IE, Outlook, calendar etc since they also happen to write the OS.

    I always maintain that the majority of users don't know they have a choice, hence they're using/starting/opening whatever that's been thrown at them.

    It's quite convenient for MS to sit and see what works, then create their own, and with their dominance in desktop OS, they can easily claim a huge chunk of the desktop-suite market share overnight.

    It wouldn't be as easy for its online search service because that requires users to go there, thus opens up the "choice" perspective.

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:Bundled Soon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      i'm glad they did this. honestly i like ms stuff and hell i'm glad they came out with a toolbar so i dont have to download one from google or anyone else. they designed the os, the browser - they probably know best when designing this add-in toolbar.

    2. Re:Bundled Soon? by wastingtape · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's quite convenient for MS to sit and see what works, then create their own, and with their dominance in desktop OS, they can easily claim a huge chunk of the desktop-suite market share overnight.

      Seems to work though wouldn't you say? I think a lot of business models are fashioned after low-risk investments. If someone else has already done the R&D why not "borrow" some from them? A good examples of positive externalities.

      Actually, as you mentioned, integration with all of MS's tools is probably great... for people who use them. Devaiting from the norm has it's consequences however. Running SquirrelMail as your primary mail client you rarely get support like this (heck i can't even click a mailto: link and have a window open up). It's all good for ma and pa Dell Windows XP machine.

    3. Re:Bundled Soon? by 1u3hr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But the computer and electronics industry tends to confirm the first mover advantage:

      Microsoft - first microcomputer software company
      Intel - first microprocessor company
      Oracle - first reliable and commercial RDMS company
      AOL - one of the original online services
      Xerox - first photocopier company
      Sony - first widespread transistor radio company

      You've got to be joking. That just shows that the real first movers have been wiped from the public mind.

    4. Re:Bundled Soon? by Trepalium · · Score: 5, Informative
      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.

      --
      I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
  2. Ironically... by wasted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The toolbar claims to block annoying popups, but the most annoying pop-up on my work computer (where I am forced to use Internet Exploder) is the one that says I have Active X disabled.

  3. Desktop Search? by ikkonoishi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Like what should have been in an OS from the start?

  4. Misc. notes by IO+ERROR · · Score: 5, Informative
    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.

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
  5. Paul Thurrott's review by DavidLeblond · · Score: 5, Informative
    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!
  6. I don't need a toolbar. WHERE'S CLIPPY?! by chroot_james · · Score: 5, Funny

    I want clippy to pop up and point to my search strings in the rendered pages. I also want clippy to say, "I see you're searching with google. Would you like help using microsoft search? How about a hotmail account?"

    --
    Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
  7. MSN toolbar hides and disables the Google toolbar by FiNnZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So I decided to install this POS to test it out. The final straw for me was that it hid and disabled my google toolbar in IE. That is:
    1) shady
    2) annoying
    3) typical Microsoft

    Do not install this.

  8. Re:'desktop search' functionality? by g0qi · · Score: 5, Informative

    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?

    --
    Yea. I know.