Print - Microsoft Ships IE Tabbed Browsing Upgrade for MSN Toolbar

Microsoft rereleased its MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search today after adding a key feature back into the product: tabbed browsing for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE). The tabbed-browsing feature is available to IE users several months before Microsoft is expected to ship IE 7.0, the next major version of IE. The main new feature in IE 7.0, of course, will be tabbed browsing.

The new IE tabbed-browsing functionality you get when you install MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search is similar to tabbed browsing on other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox. The tool includes a My Tabs feature that lets you easily bookmark a set of Web site addresses, each of which will open in individual tabs, or tabbed subpages, when you select them. The feature also lets you open MSN Search results in background tabs, which don't disrupt the current window display.

When I spoke with Microsoft about MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search in April, the tabbed-browsing feature was scheduled for inclusion in the initial public release of the product. When MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search shipped in May, however, the feature had been dropped so that Microsoft could test the functionality further. Originally, Microsoft planned to ship tabbed browsing as an iFilter add-on for the initial MSN Search Toolbar. However, current users of the toolbar will need to uninstall the initial version of the product and install the new version (see the URL below).

This new tabbed-browsing feature represents the second time that MSN has jumped out ahead of the Windows Division with its MSN Search Toolbar. In addition to shipping tabbed browsing for IE first, the MSN Search Toolbar also adds instant desktop-searching capabilities, a feature that Microsoft originally planned for Longhorn. However, the company has delayed Longhorn until late 2006.

MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search is free and requires Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000 and IE 5.01 or later. To obtain more information or the free download, visit the MSN Web site.

http://toolbar.msn.com/

I love this new tab feature and the search tool is great, I'm just hoping that MSN can resolve the issue that some people including myself are having where the toolbar is crashing Outlook 2003...

The tabs have made IE very unstable. It just doesn't work as expected. The quality of software is not what I would expect from Microsoft. Just compare tabs with desktop search (software quality) and you'll understand. And the implementation is no where near as good as Opera or Firefox.

"The tabs have made IE very unstable. It just doesn't work as expected. The quality of software is not what I would expect from Microsoft." Huh? Unstable? Doesn't work as expected? That's EXACTLY what I would expect from Microsoft!

Huh? Unstable? Doesn't work as expected? That's EXACTLY what I would expect from Microsoft! LOL!!!

It's working fine for me - no problems whatsoever... Paul, can you start deleting the "Yawn" comments, I don't know why anyone bothers to write them. Guess its some kid who thinks he's funny.

Ah, tabbed browsing. Another "innovation" from Microsoft. ;) How many years have the rest of us been using tabs?

Thank god for Microsoft bringing these amazing innovations! Tabbed browsing, I've never seen that before! Just like I've never seen desktop search, hardware-accelerated vector-based graphics, least-privileged user accounts, improved command lines, and so on. I'm so glad I have Microsoft to let me play the lateset Sims expansion! After all, that's what I and most other people use Windows for.

"Who needs tabs, keep your firefox, my tabs are in my taskbar."-Crazed MICRO$UCK fanatic commenting on Tabs in firefox last year!!!!

Paul -- IFilters are low-level objects used specifically by the indexing service to index file contents. It has nothing to do with the physical toolbar itself. Please revise your article to just say "add-on" instead of "iFilter add-on".

""Who needs tabs, keep your firefox, my tabs are in my taskbar."-Crazed MICRO$UCK fanatic commenting on Tabs in firefox last year!!!!" ROFL This is what I'm always talking about. Windows users will defend crappy design to the bitter end, becuase they need Windows to be able to play the latest Sims expansion pack. Nothing more.

"Paul -- IFilters are low-level objects used specifically by the indexing service to index file contents. It has nothing to do with the physical toolbar itself. Please revise your article to just say "add-on" instead of "iFilter add-on"." Paul is actually not as technically knowledgable as some readers apparently think he is. I e-mailed him once, and he was telling me how Spotlight isn't integrated into the OS because it doesn't search help files, and that if it was actually integrated, it would search anything at all. He said Longhorn's search, on the other hand, will be integrated. I had to explain to him how Spotlight ties into a filesystem notification system on the kernel level and uses file format importers just like Windows Longhorn's search will, and that Longhorn won't magically know how to search my app's custom data formats--I'll have to use an importer on Longhorn just like I do with Spotlight. He never replied.

I sh1t on Mac fanatics. No, not on normal everyday Apple users, but the Mac zealots. I sh1t all over them.

Paul, can you delete the 'yawn' post as mentioned above AND the flamers who do nothing but insult MS and Apple? I welcome serious tech discussion wether it's for or against MS, but all this crap is gotta stop.

Tab browsing is rather slow on IE - particularly when switching tabs. Each tab appears to be a new IE window (look what happens at the taskbar as you switch tabs) which explains why. Performance would probably be increased if each tab appeared on the taskbar (like how Excel works with each MDI window appearing on the taskbar)

"Mac fanatics wear diapers because they sh1t their pants regularly" ... AND THAT FOLKS IS PERFECTLY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LEVEL OF DISCOURSE IN THESE COMMENTS!!!! THESE COMMENTS PAGES ARE WORTHLESS. THE ONLY REASON THEY EXIST IS BECAUSE THE CORPORATE STOOGES KNOW YOU IDIOTS WILL KEEP POSTING AND DRIVING UP THEIR AD REVENUE!!!

I don't see what the big deal about tabs are. I tried out Firefox thinking I would use them and I always just opened up a new window anyway. One thing that bugs me about firefox over IE is that firefox renders slower. You see alot more screen updates than IE.

My impression of Wininformant readers: "Waah! I know Windows sucks total ***, but I can't stand having the truth told to me! I can't argue their points, so I'm going to whine to Paul to delete all the comments! Waaaahhh!"

Revised ....... "Mac fanatics wear diapers because they sh1t their pants regularly" ... AND THAT FOLKS IS PERFECTLY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LEVEL OF DISCOURSE IN THESE COMMENTS!!!! THESE COMMENTS PAGES ARE WORTHLESS. THE ONLY REASON THEY EXIST IS BECAUSE THE CORPORATE STOOGES KNOW YOU IDIOTS WILL KEEP POSTING YOUR INANE, STUPID BULLSH1T THAT CONVERTS ABSOLUTELY NO ONE TO YOUR OBVIOUSLY SUPERIOR BELIEF SYSTEM, DRIVING UP THEIR AD REVENUE!!!

TWO MORE YEARS OF WINDOWS XP! YAYYY! "OS X is simply better than Windows. Especially for power users." - Paul Thurrott "Longhorn is a trainwreck." - Paul Thurrott

TWO MORE YEARS OF WINDOWS XP! YAYYY! "OS X is simply better than Windows. Especially for power users." - Paul Thurrott "Longhorn is a trainwreck." - Paul Thurrott ... AND THAT FOLKS IS PERFECTLY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LEVEL OF DISCOURSE IN THESE COMMENTS!!!! THESE COMMENTS PAGES ARE WORTHLESS. THE ONLY REASON THEY EXIST IS BECAUSE THE CORPORATE STOOGES KNOW YOU IDIOTS WILL KEEP POSTING YOUR INANE, STUPID BULLSH1T THAT CONVERTS ABSOLUTELY NO ONE TO YOUR OBVIOUSLY SUPERIOR BELIEF SYSTEM, DRIVING UP THEIR AD REVENUE!!!

My impression of Mac zealots posting on Wininformant: "I have to take a sh1t, but I must finish this holy war against Windows users! Did I put on a diaper? Yes, I did! I'll just go ahead and sh1t my pants while I continue to wage my holy war. Ahhhhhhhh!"

Me second impression of Mac zealots: "I will win this holy war against Windows users. I am obviously superior! I am never wrong about anything. Steve Jobs will continue to lead me to the light! The Windows users are trash. Scum. Worthless. I hate them all, and I will either convert them all, or destroy them, with my comments on Wininformant!"

The current version of the toolbar doesn't detect the new release, and you have to completely uninstall the old version to "Upgrade" to the new version. I guess this version will be just as buggy as the rest of IE if the install process is so brain-dead. Can't they get anything right first time?

"Can't they get anything right first time?" No. It usually takes Microsoft three times to get something right, but when they finally do (or when they finally get it "close enough"), they tend to dominate.

The current version of the toolbar doesn't detect the new release, and you have to completely uninstall the old version to "Upgrade" to the new version. --------------- BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHA Well its tough because they dont.. er.. own the OS like Apple.. *groan.. I give up.. Firefox all the way..

Anyone else have a problem of Firefox being broken (won't load up at all) after installing this toolbar? I also think that the tabs in IE are slow and buggy. If they would actually integrate them into the system like Firefox does, maybe IE tabs would be... decent. I'll stick with ff after I reinstall it because of MSN's bugginess.

http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/ Apple: We're going to move to a platform that our previous advertisements said sucks. That's the kind of service we provide our user base!

The anti-MS comments that invariably show up are so tiring. I have installed the tabs. They work great. But, seriously, just how valuable is the feature? All the hype about the capability in Opera and Mozilla caused me to expect it to be the next big thing in browser technology. I installed it, I played with it, but I don't see myself using it.

Thanks for all the posts... you have saved me a lot of time... Until I hear better things about tabed browsing with IE, I will stick with AvantBrowser [ http://www.avantbrowser.com] It is quick with the IE render engin and all kinds of great extras. Heck, I developed my own tabed browser using the IE engine back in 99', but some developers have far to much time on their hands (Like AvantBrowser) for me to keep up with, so I quickly dropped it. It is about time that M$ has gotten around to copying everybody else... I tried Firefox and Netscape... nothing to write home about...

CNet: Java Flaws Open Door to Hackers http://news.com.com/Java+flaws+open+door+to+hackers/2100-1002_3-5746913.html?tag=nefd.top But the Mac zealots said only Microsoft writes buggy insecure software!!!

It is about time that M$ has gotten around to copying everybody else... ------- Is that the new mission statement.. aaaaah the Ballmer years.. BTW.. Firefox IS a big deal, I cannot believe any sane person would touch IE.. you cannot go back to 'Open New Window' after using tabbed browsing for.. *gulp.. 4 years?

Unfortunately all that glitter is not gold. I had the toolbar in my system w/ tab function, when to un-install after it messed up my outlook. I had to call microsoft to completely remove coding! After the uninstall I started receiving over 100 pop-ups stating that it could not find the config for the toolbar!!!

You people talk about FireFox which to be is a sorry browser. You must be running Windows 95! Because that browser is so full of bugs and flaws, it's sad!

Pity the tabbed browsing doesn't work properly. Back to Firefox with tabbed browsing preferences ... maybe IE7 will be better, but I doubt it.

Very disappointing beta. With the MSN Toolbar installed, on some web pages, I would see a 3-4 second delay where CPU was pegged before IE would get control back. Then, the uninstall hung. When I rebooted, my task bar menus were hosed. Nice job, fellas.

Firefox is still better. I have had nothing but problems with this toolbar anyway (I'm a limited user). First it wanted to index my desktop, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it, so I killed explorer.exe and re-started it, and now the toolbar thing doesn't work at all and Internet Explorer won't load (when I look at the processes list, I see "iexplore.exe", but never actually see anything from Internet Explorer).