MSN Search Toolbar

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The MSN Search Toolbar is a toolbar for Internet Explorer. As well as providing tabbed browsing capabilities for Internet Explorer, it includes Windows Desktop Search which runs in the background and indexes all files and emails found in Windows Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and/or Microsoft Outlook Express. It provides a simple search interface that resides in the taskbar that starts to list its results as the user types in a search query, making it easy to search across emails, pictures, text files, and documents with a single search criterion.

It also provides a form filler and interface to MSN services. Rival search toolbars include the Google Toolbar and the Yahoo! Toolbar.

On the other hand, the toolbar search bar can cause confusion due to its similarity to the URL address bar.

[edit] Controversial bundling

The toolbar is bundled with some popular freely-downloadable software, most notably MSN Messenger, with the option to install the software selected by default. Some users see this as unethical, as it is similar to the tactics used by some P2P programs to trick users into 'consenting' to having spyware on their computers. However, many other companies bundle different pieces of software into one installer (e.g. Apple's QuickTime for Windows download also installs iTunes) and the MSN Search Toolbar itself is not 'harmful' in any particular way. If the user decides that he/she does not want the toolbar, it can be uninstalled without affecting the software it was bundled with.