Microsoft launches New MSN 'SilverLight' Toolbar.

HappyAndyK on 04 March 2008 - 12:05 · 12 comments & 7282 views

Advertisement (Why?)

Microsoft has launched a reincarnation of MSN Toolbar in beta form, codenamed Salsa.

The toolbar is powered by Silverlight, which adds an extra dimension to the features on offer. This enables the drop-down MSN chanel previews, showing the latest content from within the MSN portal without requiring the user to move from the internet page they are currently browsing. From the same preview pane users can also chose to search that part of the site, which brings us onto the other main feature, Live Search. There's a breaking news feature, bringing the latest news direct to your browser.

Link: MSN Toolbar

About the Author

Full name: Unknown
User name: HappyAndyK
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: View All
More: View Profile

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 12 additional comments

#1 LipSmacker on 04 Mar 2008 - 12:29

Toolbar....

#2 Jasur on 04 Mar 2008 - 12:59

Some reason my PC does not like Silverlight.

Installs, but wont load pages.

Uninstall and works fine.

Go figure.

#3 Lastwebpage on 04 Mar 2008 - 13:31

What about the Live Toolbar and the addons for it? Why MS goes the way with this live sites/services, but still enhance the MSN services, too?

#4 JamesNL on 04 Mar 2008 - 13:53

Why is it written like 'SilverLight' in the title? It now looks like a codename while Silverlight is the actual product name. And it's pretty cool too.

(1 reply) #5 NimrodUK on 04 Mar 2008 - 13:59

Love how it doesn't work in Vista x64 unless the old 32-bit IE is used, nice to see Microsoft not supporting their own initiative to move to 64-bit.

#5.1 GP007 on 04 Mar 2008 - 15:59

I think they said from the start that version 2.0 would support x64. But I could be wrong. The vast majority of the user base is still on 32bit. So you take care of their needs first.

#6 NateB1 on 04 Mar 2008 - 14:57

Hmmmm... For some reason, it isn't showing up for me under "available connections".

#7 Chrono951 on 04 Mar 2008 - 16:00

same here, not appearing in the list

#8 HalcyonX12 on 04 Mar 2008 - 20:10

There have been toolbars that put the news and previews right there for you to see before, and in fact there have been toolbars designed for entire sites such as amazon and ebay before that have live previews and other plugins that aggregate RSS feeds. Or you could just simply use RSS bookmark feeds. Why do you need silverlight to do any of this?

Also, don't most people use widget layers for things like this, e.g. live news, weather, etc... It's just less obtrusive to press a key that brings up your widget layer/dashboard than it is to have a toolbar in your browser constantly using up screen real-estate.

Last edited by HalcyonX12 on 04 Mar 2008 - 20:16

(2 replies) #9 seebaran on 04 Mar 2008 - 23:24

Though visually more appealing than any other toolbar I've seen, portal toolbars add more unnecessary clunk to the IE interface. Who really needs them? They might as well attempt to re-do a lite version of the MSN browser with this.

#9.1 carmatic on 05 Mar 2008 - 03:01

maybe , silverlight will let it be more flexible and allow it to become other things than just a portal toolbar?

#9.2 toadeater on 05 Mar 2008 - 09:43

(carmatic said @ #9.1)

maybe , silverlight will let it be more flexible and allow it to become other things than just a portal toolbar?

Like what?

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Advertisement (Why?)

Neowin.net

Microsoft launches New MSN 'SilverLight' Toolbar.

Share this Article

About the Author

Related news