MSN Toolbar adds Tabbed Browsing functionality

Okay, so I'm a huge fan of the Google toolbar (which let's me blog instantaneously when the urge hits), and a big fan of Firefox, especially the ease with which one can do tabbed browsing within the Firefox browser.

The latest version of MSN's toolbar, though, is worth a look, and if you're in an environment in which Firefox is not supported or if you prefer IE, this toolbar is great. It allows one to use tabbed browsing (though it involves Alt+click or right click + "open in new tab" as opposed to Firefox's simple middle button click, though this is coming in the next version of IE, I'm sure), and - very slick - allows one to program a "routine" of favorite sites which automatically open up, each in its own tab" when you fire up IE. This is very nice. So when I open IE, I am able to then open 4 or 5 different tabs, one with my my.yahoo, one with my gmail, one with my yahoo mail, one with my news page, etc., etc., etc. Very nice feature. WIth the MSN toolbar, you can also download the deskbar and outlook toolbar, which (like google's) will index your hard drive and allow for easy searching of documents, e-mails, etc.

The MSN desktop search is prettier and a little more robust than google's, it seems, though google's is faster and simpler, especially if you're used to the google search interface.

What do I use? Both. I tend to default to the google toolbar for internet searches and finding things on the web (though I use MSN, as well, to compare results if nothing else). I use only the MSN desktop search to search my hard drive, documents, e-mails, etc. I use IE at work (now with tabbed browsing built in to the MSN toolbar) and I tend to use Firefox at home (whose tabbed browsing is, in the end, still superior).

I'm expecting that Windows' Longhorn client will have some fantastic search and organizational features built in, much like Mac's OS X - Tiger, whose search capabilities are quite robust.

Search and browse smarter with MSN Search Toolbar, now with Windows Desktop Search