November 11, 2008

Microsoft Strikes Toolbar Agreement with Sun Microsystems

Microsoft has struck a deal with Sun Microsystems to have the MSN toolbar downloaded with Java Runtime Environment (JRE). The agreement will give Internet Explorer users in the United States the option of downloading the toolbar when they download JRE. The toolbar offers access to Live Search features, the MSN network, Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

“This agreement with Sun Microsystems is another important milestone in our strategy to secure broad-scale distribution for our search offering, enabling millions more people to experience the benefits of Live Search,” said Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business at Microsoft. “With the vast array of Java software-based Web applications that are downloaded every month, this deal will expose Live Search to millions more Internet users and drive increased volume for our search advertisers.”

Earlier this year, Microsoft reached a deal with HP to have the toolbar shipped on 2009 PCs.

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 4, 2006

Microsoft's Short Hand Search "Wild Thing" & IM Link Sharing "Nocturnal"

TMCnet.com has an interesting article explaining two new projects Microsoft is working on in relation to MSN Search. The first is something named "Wild Thing" that enables short hand searching. It was first designed for mobile Web searching, to allow users to type short hand, but now if you don't know how to spell "Schwarzenegger" you can type "ar* sc*w mo*" into the engine and it will try to figure it out. The second is something named "Nocturnal" and this shares bookmarks and Web browsing activity with your MSN Messenger buddies. Nocturnal can also be used to learn your Web behavior and tailor search results specifically for you.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 3:16 PM | Permalink

March 13, 2006

MSN Released Windows Live Toolbar Beta

The MSN Search Blog announced that they released a Windows Live Toolbar beta on Friday. I am currently unable to test it out myself or access the page (on a Mac) so I'll summarize the blog entry. Integrated into the toolbar is Onfolio, enabling users a "convenient way to collect information online and organize it on their PCs," see press release. Other features of the toolbar include; "Windows Live Search, Windows Live Local, Windows Live Favorites and Live.com with automatic RSS detection and aggregation."

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:27 AM | Permalink

February 8, 2006

Google Testing Software Distribution With Dell, Plus Details On IE7 Search Battle

We covered last month that Google was providing personal home pages for Dell. Dell testing preinstalled Google software package from Reuters now looks at how Google is working with Dell to put Google's desktop search and toolbar on Dell computers. It's said to be a test distribution, at the moment. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal looks at that and more about the search battle shaping up within IE7.

John Battelle points to Pressuring Microsoft, PC Makers Team Up With Its Software Rivals (paid sub. required) from the Wall Street Journal, which sparked the Reuters story about Google and Dell. The WSJ article covers how Google might pay Dell fees approaching $1 billion over three years for distribution.

The story goes deeper into concerns by Yahoo and Google that the new search toolbar in Internet Explorer 7 might hurt them, since MSN would be the default. Sure, it might. Then again, MSN Search has been the default in IE since at least IE3, if I recall. Despite this, non-Microsoft search engines haven't just survived, they've thrived. Yes, IE7 sports an actual search box this time, but I still think we'll see users change this off the default setting in various ways.

There's lots of detail on Google wanting Microsoft to ask consumers to make a conscious choice about search providers, rather than IE7 automatically using their choice in IE6 (which is probably MSN Search, for most people). It's an odd argument, given that Google has not demanded that Firefox make consumers do similar choices in that browser. A partnership deal makes Google the default in Firefox, except for Asian-language versions where Yahoo cut its own deals.

Chris Sherman is planning our own look at some of these issues in the near future. I'd love to see some universal agreement about how ALL browsers should handle choices of search providers, in terms of how defaults are set and can be changed. What I fear is another round of stealth default changes, where each of the players constantly try to switch you around.

Google and Yahoo encourage you to choose them as a default search provider through their software apps. I don't mind, because I can see they are clearly asking me when this happens. Both also try to encourage you to change in other ways, as you can see here and here. Again, I don't mind, because you can understand what's going on. But a few years ago, other players would just make the changes, leaving users puzzled about why all their searches mysteriously started going through some new search engine. We don't need that again.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 8:39 AM | Permalink

September 23, 2005

New Watson Sidebar for MSN Search

Watson, a "proactive" search utility that watches what you do and automatically provides related search results from the web, is now available as a plug-in for the MSN Desktop/Toolbar suite.

From the press release: Watsons sidebar display is continuously updated with real-time information that is relevant to the work being done at any given moment. This gives users an instant snapshot of information thats pertinent to their work. The security and identity of each Watson and Windows Desktop Search user is never compromised, since Watson does not store or transmit any personal data.

I'll be taking a closer look at Watson and its capabilities in an upcoming SearchDay. Meanwhile, the free 30-day trial of Watson 2.0 and the Add-in is available to download at http://addins.msn.com.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:57 AM | Permalink

August 15, 2005

MSN Begins Rolling Out "Add-Ins" for Search Toolbar

Chris Butler, program manager at MSN, has posted a note on MSN Search's WebLog that the MSN Search Toolbar team has just released their first "add-in" for the toolbar. This one allows you to, "to view a three day forecast at a glance with one click." You'll find more add-ins as their released, here.

Butler also points out that the first partner services that uses the MSN Search Toolbar API has also just been released that allows users the ability to access files, folders and other material from your PC via any web accessible computer. More about FolderShare here. MSN is also making available a new compilation of add-ins for their desktop search application that allow user to search more file types than what comes pre-loaded with the desktop search app.

Posted by Gary Price at 10:46 PM | Permalink

July 27, 2005

New MSN Screen Saver With Search & RSS Integration

Need a screensaver? The new MSN Screen Saver puts a search box on display, plus shows you RSS feeds, photos from your desktop and more. Seem odd to have a search box in your screen saver? Yes and no. It's odd in that if you go to use your computer, you want your screen saver to go away. But it's smart in that if you like the other things the screen saver offers then realize you need to search for something, there's a search box -- and MSN's search box -- ready to go. Yahoo and Google don't offer screen savers that I know about. I'm sure they'll come. More details on the MSN Search Blog: MSN Screensaver with Search & RSS

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:58 AM | Permalink

July 17, 2005

MSN Search Releases More International Versions of Toolbar

A post on MSN Search's WebLog points out that more international versions of the MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search are now available. As of today, the toolbar is available for 37 locales and in 15 languages.

Here's a list of the versions that are now available: Australia, Austria, Belgium (Dutch & French versions), Brazil, Canada (English & French versions), China (Simplified Chinese), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR (Traditional Chinese), India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korean, Latin America, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Phillipines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (French & German versions), Taiwan (Traditional Chinese), UK, USA (English & Spanish versions), and Global/Worldwide

Versions of the MSN Search Toolbar that were available prior to Friday's release are italicized.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:59 PM | Permalink

June 9, 2005

MSN Search Toolbar Users Get Browser Tabs

One of the great features that both Opera and Firefox offer is tabbed browsing. Having multiple pages quickly accessible in different "tabbed" windows is a huge timesaver.

While it's true that some apps that utilize the Internet Explorer engine (Netcaptor, Avant Browser, etc) offer tabbed browsing, the actual IE browser doesn't. That was until today, sort of. Now, if and only if you use the MSN Search Toolbar, tabs are available. This sounds like a stop gap measure until IE 7 is released. More info on MSN Search's WebLog. A screen cap is available from BetaNews.

Posted by Gary Price at 6:41 PM | Permalink

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