Microsoft Launches Tabbed Browsing Tool for IE Tabbed Browsing Finally Arrives from Microsoft Sean Michael Kerner
Tabbed browsing has come to Microsoft. Although version 7 of Internet Explorer has not been released (yet), Microsoft has included tabbed browsing support in an update to its MSN Search Toolbar for Internet Explorer that was made publicly available today.
The tabbed browsing feature in the new version of the MSN toolbar enables users "to quickly access, manage, and save commonly visited sites into automatic 'routines' of Web pages that can all be opened simultaneously," according to an MSN Fact Sheet.
It goes on to explain that the new tabbed browsing feature will also enable users to launch MSN Search results in new background tabs.
Internet Explorer's rival, Mozilla, has long embraced tabbed browsing as one of the features that differentiates it from its Redmond rival.
Back in May, Microsoft Internet Explorer product unit manager, Dean Hachamovitch, announced that the upcoming IE 7 browser would include the much requested tabbed browsing feature.
At that time Microsoft indicated that an upcoming version of the MSN toolbar would also include the feature, a promise that it has now fulfilled.
The tabbed browsing feature in the MSN Search Toolbar for Internet Explorer will also be available as an upgrade to the current 2.0 version of the toolbar.
Originally launched in March 2004, Microsoft claims that the MSN toolbar has been downloaded over 100 million times.
Tabbed browsing isn't the only new feature in the new MSN toolbar. Beyond the obvious IE enhancement, the new search toolbar release provides improvements to its overall Windows Desktop Search capabilities, including Microsoft Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office, and Internet Explorer.
Windows desktop search functionality was introduced to the MSN toolbar in December 2004.
Overall, Microsoft claims that it has improved the performance of the tool for faster retrieval of files as well as increased the customization capabilities. The new customization features enable users to define what gets indexed for search, what file types are searched, and where the index is saved on the users PC.
With the new release, MSN also reiterated its commitment to user privacy protection by noting that secure Web pages are not stored or cached by the MSN Toolbar.
"What's on a person's desktop stays on the desktop," the MSN fact sheet states.
The tabbed browsing MSN toolbar is available now as a free download.
