We’re excited to announce that Windows Live Toolbar is not only out of beta but also packed with new features to help you find precisely what you’re looking for, surf with powerful protection and personalize your experience on the Web. Since the toolbar is an add-in to the browser, these features are ubiquitously accessible from any web page. Our hope is that Windows Live Toolbar gives you a better overall Web search experience, so try us out and let us know what you think.
Smart Menu
Smart Menu enables immediate access to information about things you select on any Web page.
Whenever you highlight text that Smart Menu understands, a menu bar automatically displays near the highlighted text, providing you shortcuts to access maps, weather, stocks or web calling through Windows Live Messenger.
Because Smart Menu presents the information like an instant answer in a preview window, you don’t have to leave what you are doing to take advantage of this information.
For instance, recently I was trying to find a hotel for my upcoming trip to Hawaii. I get really annoyed when the Web site doesn’t provide a link to a map or the map ends up being hard to read. With Smart Menu, I can highlight the address and get an instant map preview from Windows Live Local. Best of all, my favorite Windows Live Local features like zooming, continuous dragging, aerial vs. road view are all available within the mini-preview! Without any extra clicks, I weeded out all the hotels that are far from the beach!
Maps
Another feature I enjoy using is the new Maps button on the Toolbar. It picks up multiple addresses on any Web page and lets you simultaneously map them all out on Windows Live Local.
As part of my ongoing hotel research, I visited a travel Web site to get hotel recommendations. In one click, I got the top 10 recommended hotels mapped as pushpins on Windows Live Local. No tedious copying and pasting! Again, hotels near the beach win!
Custom Buttons
Custom buttons let you personalize the toolbar with buttons about topics and Web sites you care about. For example, to keep track of air fares, I have a custom button that keeps me informed of flight deals from top travel sites. I also have a button that keeps me up to date on movie news.
Here’s more on what’s so great about custom buttons:
- Powerful – you can define a button that searches one or more Web sites (using tabs from the toolbar in IE6 or IE7 tabs), navigates to favorite places on the Internet, or keeps you informed with headlines from your favorite sites through RSS.
- Simple - custom buttons are so easy to create that you can make one in minutes. It is based on a simple XML file coupled with a button icon. Check out dev.live.com for access to the SDK and more.
- Share-able – You have access to loads of useful buttons made and shared by other people from the new Windows Live Gallery or when you’re feeling really creative, you can upload your own custom buttons and share them with the world!
Smart Type
As you start typing in the new toolbar search box, you will notice suggestions of popular search terms so that you can more quickly and precisely find what you’re looking for.
I have also received some hotel recommendations from friends but as you can imagine, getting the spelling right for Hawaiian words is tough! With Smart Type, as I started typing in the toolbar search box, the recommendation for the Halekulani hotel came back in seconds. Bingo!
The Toolbar also offers you many options to collect organize and share the information you find on the Web. I can email a simple link to a friend. I can also use Onfolio, a new toolbar add-in that lets me easily save, organize and share my online research. Onfolio captures copies of pictures, text or Web pages to your PC for reliable access later. In my case, I am positive that once I share my hotel findings with my husband, he will just pick the cheapest hotel on the listJ.
There are tons of other improvements as well including the new One Care Advisor which helps you combat identify theft and keep your PC safe from viruses.
With the new Windows Live Toolbar, I am practically jet set and ready to go on vacation!
On behalf of the entire toolbar team, I hope that you will find the new Windows Live Toolbar equally useful and enjoyable! Again, be sure to tell us what you think as we are always looking for your suggestions.
Denise Ho
Lead Program Manager, Windows Live Toolbar
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