Lost in the hoopla of the official announcement for Microsoft’s New Search Engine was the fact that they also refreshed their desktop search toolbar. To be honest I didn’t even know they had a desktop search toolbar, but now I do.

MSN Toolbar Suite, which first appeared in mid-December 2004, now indexes e-mail file attachments faster, will index Outlook messages even if that client isn’t the default e-mailer, and eliminates the irritating pop-ups that various anti-virus programs were putting on the screen when running the tool.

Is it just me or does anyone else see the irony of Microsoft having a desktop search toolbar on their own operating system to compete against another companies’ superior desktop search toolbar? Funny how things change when the battle is taken to one’s own turf.

If anyone has ever used this I would like to hear what your experience is. I still haven’t found a need for desktop search (well I am on a Mac now so I can’t use them anyways), but that might just be due to my superior computer organization skills.

That might be all the Microsoft news for today. Just didn’t want us to get too Apple-centric…even though I loves me my new 30″ goodness.

Related posts:

Google Desktop Search
Extending the Reach of Google’s Desktop Search
Google Desktop Search Out of Beta
Google Releases Beta of Desktop Search 2
A9: Amazon’s new web search engine

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