MSN Toolbar
Encyclopedia
Bing Bar is a browser extension
toolbar
for Internet Explorer
, developed by Microsoft
. Bing Bar replaced Windows Live Toolbar
in Windows Live Essentials
2011 ("Wave 4") announced on June 23, 2010. Bing Bar was previously supported on Mozilla Firefox
but Microsoft discontinued support.
and from the Bing
search engine. The Bing Bar user-interface enables visual effects such as flip, slide and rollover animations, colors and themes. The toolbar features "flyout" content windows, which enables users to view the latest content from the MSN Portal without requiring them to move from the internet page they are currently browsing. From the same preview pane, the user can search that section of the site. The news, weather and sports content buttons feature a 'Breaking News' notification to alert the user when a high-priority story or severe weather alert has occurred. The user can customize the theme and color scheme of the Bing Bar as well as choose which MSN content buttons to present within the user interface. Bing Bar also displays the current local weather forecast and stock market positions.
The Bing Bar features integration with Microsoft Bing search engine. In addition to the traditional web search functions, Bing Bar also allows search on other Bing services such as Images, Video, News, Shopping, Maps, Travel and XRank. When users perform a search on another search engine, the Bing Bar's search box will automatically populate itself, allowing the user to view the results from Bing, should it be desired.
Bing Bar also incorporates Windows Live features such Hotmail
, Windows Live Messenger
and Windows Live ID
. When signed in to Windows Live ID through Bing Bar, the user will receive notifications and an instant preview of new emails in their Hotmail, inbox, can instantly send the current page via email or instant message to their contacts and can quickly access other Windows Live functionality. The email button on version 7 of Bing Bar adds support for reading Gmail
and Yahoo! Mail
.
Browser extension
A browser extension is a computer program that extends the functionality of a web browser in some way. Depending on the browser and the version, the term may be distinct from similar terms such as plug-in or add-on. Mozilla Firefox was designed with the idea of being a small and simple web browser,...
toolbar
Toolbar
In a graphical user interface, on a computer monitor, a toolbar is a GUI widget on which on-screen buttons, icons, menus, or other input or output elements are placed. Toolbars are seen in office suites, graphics editors, and web browsers...
for Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
, developed by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
. Bing Bar replaced Windows Live Toolbar
Windows Live Toolbar
Windows Live Toolbar was an browser extension toolbar for Internet Explorer. It superseded MSN Search Toolbar. Windows Live Toolbar provided a simple search interface that starts to list results as the user types in a search query, and uses Bing as its search engine...
in Windows Live Essentials
Windows Live Essentials
Windows Live Essentials is a suite of freeware applications by Microsoft that aims to offer integrated and bundled e-mail, instant messaging, photo-sharing, blog publishing, security services and other Windows Live entities...
2011 ("Wave 4") announced on June 23, 2010. Bing Bar was previously supported on Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
but Microsoft discontinued support.
Features
Bing Bar incorporates features from Windows LiveWindows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
and from the Bing
Bing
Bing is a web search engine from Microsoft.Bing may also refer to:* An onomatopœia of a bell sound* Bing cherry, a variety of cherry* Bing , Chinese flatbread* Bing , a German company that manufactured toys and kitchen utensils...
search engine. The Bing Bar user-interface enables visual effects such as flip, slide and rollover animations, colors and themes. The toolbar features "flyout" content windows, which enables users to view the latest content from the MSN Portal without requiring them to move from the internet page they are currently browsing. From the same preview pane, the user can search that section of the site. The news, weather and sports content buttons feature a 'Breaking News' notification to alert the user when a high-priority story or severe weather alert has occurred. The user can customize the theme and color scheme of the Bing Bar as well as choose which MSN content buttons to present within the user interface. Bing Bar also displays the current local weather forecast and stock market positions.
The Bing Bar features integration with Microsoft Bing search engine. In addition to the traditional web search functions, Bing Bar also allows search on other Bing services such as Images, Video, News, Shopping, Maps, Travel and XRank. When users perform a search on another search engine, the Bing Bar's search box will automatically populate itself, allowing the user to view the results from Bing, should it be desired.
Bing Bar also incorporates Windows Live features such Hotmail
Hotmail
Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free web-based email service operated by Microsoft as part of its Windows Live group. It was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and launched in July 1996 as "HoTMaiL". It was one of the first...
, Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...
and Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID is a single sign-on web service developed and provided by Microsoft that allows users to log in to many websites using one account...
. When signed in to Windows Live ID through Bing Bar, the user will receive notifications and an instant preview of new emails in their Hotmail, inbox, can instantly send the current page via email or instant message to their contacts and can quickly access other Windows Live functionality. The email button on version 7 of Bing Bar adds support for reading Gmail
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well via POP3 or IMAP protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though...
and Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail is a web mail service provided by Yahoo!. It was inaugurated in 1997, and, according to comScore, Yahoo! Mail was the second largest web-based email service with 273.1 million users as of November 2010....
.
See also
- Windows Live ToolbarWindows Live ToolbarWindows Live Toolbar was an browser extension toolbar for Internet Explorer. It superseded MSN Search Toolbar. Windows Live Toolbar provided a simple search interface that starts to list results as the user types in a search query, and uses Bing as its search engine...
- Advanced SearchbarAdvanced SearchbarAdvanced Searchbar is a freeware toolbar for Internet Explorer 6, 7.0 and Internet Explorer 8 which searches over 100 different search engines including: Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Wikipedia, Open Directory Project, About.com, Ask.com, Dogpile, Answers.com, etc. It has an interface intended to be...
- Alexa ToolbarAlexa ToolbarThe Alexa Toolbar, is an application produced by Alexa Internet, and is a Firefox extension and Browser Helper Object for Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows that is used by Alexa to measure website specific statistics.-Content:...
- AOL ToolbarAOL ToolbarThe AOL Toolbar is a browser toolbar for Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Flock. It has a few default buttons like Mail, Weather, and Radio, and also allows the user to add additional buttons - from the Button Gallery or by dragging and dropping a website's favicon....
- Yahoo! ToolbarYahoo! ToolbarYahoo! Toolbar is a toolbar that installs on the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, within the context of internet access functions. It allows access to several functions, including Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Mail. It also contains built-in algorithms to prevent pop-ups and spyware...