Bing - Tabbed browsing is here! - Search Blog

June 09, 2005, 10:32 AM by Bing | 29 Comments

You asked for it, we told you it was coming and now it’s here! Happy to let you know Tabs are now available as part of the MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search. Why are tabs so great? Well here is a personal example: I am addicted to online shopping. Yet I don’t have the time to constantly monitor the shopping sites I love for great deals and new items. The new Tabbed Browsing feature in MSN Search Toolbar lets me set a group of favorite sites as My Tabs, so that I can open a set of web pages in tabs all at once. So every morning as I’m drinking my orange juice, it takes just one click for me to check out all the latest bargains.

Tabbed browsing not only makes online shopping easier (and my wallet more broke), it also drastically improves my web search experience! Have you ever gotten annoyed with hitting the back button repeatedly to get back to the original search results? MSN Search Toolbar gives you the option to open MSN Search results in new background tabs. This is a HUGE time saver because it lets you keep the search results on one tab while links that you click open in the background.

Best of all, Tabbed Browsing with MSN Search Toolbar works in Internet Explorer 5.01 or above! IE7 will also offer tabs but in the meantime this is a great option.

Enjoy! Get it now!

-Denise Ho, MSN Search Toolbar PM

Comments

Nic

Posted On June 09, 2005, 12:26 PM

Some nice innovations, but I'm looking for the basics.

Any way to open new tabs on middle-click?

Any way to hide the MSN toolbar, when no tabs are displayed so screen space isn't wasted?

Lee Odden

Posted On June 09, 2005, 12:27 PM

Tabs are cool. When is IE7 coming out?

BTW, your link to the IE7 article goes to https: are you sure you want to do that?

bnoodle

Posted On June 09, 2005, 12:31 PM

Is there a shortcut to open a link in a new tab? I tried Ctrl-Click but it didn't work...

Barry Dorrans

Posted On June 09, 2005, 12:38 PM

Channel9 forums already have some feedback for you

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=75446

No point in reposting my moaning here <g>

Davely

Posted On June 09, 2005, 01:03 PM

I really like the idea, and I'm excited about it and IE7, but...This really seems like a beta to me. Hopefully future releases will be better. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Thomas

Posted On June 09, 2005, 01:25 PM

On tabbed browsing:

The way IE redraws/flickers when I click between tabs is very annoying. That part of the product seems beta-quality, not release quality.

The "open each link in a new background tab" is giving me grief too:
1) With this on, clicking a link makes IE lose focus - none of the tabs or the main IE window now has focus
2) The setting is not sticky - once I launch a link, the setting goes back to being "un-set".

I am running XP sp2 pro.

Ryan Walters

Posted On June 09, 2005, 04:24 PM

I'm excited about tabs in IE6 via the MSN toolbar, but I can't get them to display in IE. I've toggled "tabbed browsing" on and off and restarted and reinstalled, and I can't get it work. Anyone have any hints?

(cross-posted at Ed Bott's blog)

lkjh

Posted On June 09, 2005, 04:27 PM

Your tabbed browsing is terrible. If this is what IE7 is going to be like then you have no chance.

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/008300.html

has a good review.

Phillip Molly Malone

Posted On June 09, 2005, 06:54 PM

Hi Guys,
I tried it and had some problems. Rather then put my experiences in a Blog and have you try and find them, could you point me to some where I could log these issues as bugs when I have a chance. I am sure if I look around I can find a feedback form, but to be honest (and this is slack on my part) I haven't been bothered chasing it down.

TIA
Molly
http://spaces.msn.com/members/mollyzine

Ryan

Posted On June 09, 2005, 07:18 PM

Way too late buddy. I was using IE all the time until two weeks ago. That's when I slow converted to Firefox. I blame microsoft for abandoning IE. That's what happens when you stop innovation. Good luck.

Bydia

Posted On June 09, 2005, 07:54 PM

Would like to try it but the the Update is not working yet. Do I have to uninstall Desktop search and install the new version to get it? If so, ouch.

antonio carlos

Posted On June 10, 2005, 12:12 AM

finally after 4 years of zero inovation IE is going to have tabbed browsing! I think it will more 2 years to have a RSS reader integrated :-). And yet through the msn desktop search, it's not even via an official Windows Update release, that's very sad. Actually as I don't use IE anymore, doesn't matter what they release for it, because I have so many Extensions on my Firefox, totally focused on my preferences that makes inpossible to me to come back. Anyway good luck for you guys.

Marcus

Posted On June 10, 2005, 05:07 AM

My goodness this is awful. Lots of flickering and what appear to be temporary IE windows flashing up on the screen. And that desktop search thingy just wastes screen real estate. One has to hope IE7 does tabbed browsing better than this. I'm sticking to Opera thanks!

Lawrence KC Leung

Posted On June 10, 2005, 11:20 AM

Just tried it, just make sure you don't press F11 to go fullscreen. First of all you don't see the tab bar when you are in fullscreen. Second of all, when you get back to the normal screen mode, you will lose all ur other tabs!

X-COM

Posted On June 10, 2005, 12:14 PM

another interesting bug

the screen before the issue:
http://web.axelero.hu/xcomus/tab_bug1.png

and after i click on minimize:
http://web.axelero.hu/xcomus/tab_bug2.png

No idea what causes this one, so cannot reproduce it when i want it

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