I just downloaded and have been playing for about 15 minutes with the MSN Toolbar. My initial reaction: it sucks.
There's all kinds of flickering in the browser when you create new tabs or switch between tabs. The UI feels a bit clunky and you can't have tabs without also having the search tools displayed. Maybe I'll post more later when I've played a bit more. Maybe I'll just uninstall it.
Posted by asa at June 9, 2005 12:16 AMNow the question is, when will MSN Toolbar be available for Firefox? ;-)
Posted by: yfan on June 9, 2005 12:41 AMYep, you're right, it's rubbish - consider it uninstalled
Posted by: silentj on June 9, 2005 01:39 AMClearly, they have issues to sort out with their implementation of Tabbed Browsing :). I'm guessing that they are releasing the toolbar now to get some testing so that they can address the issues while developing IE 7.0.
Posted by: Gavin Sharp on June 9, 2005 02:19 AMScreenshots of this monster?
Posted by: element on June 9, 2005 03:08 AMIt may just be an attempt to put those who've not tried tabbed browsing off the idea for good, "Hmm, so this is tabbed browsing, I don't see what all the fuss is about".
Posted by: ian on June 9, 2005 03:17 AMMy first thought: who wants a MSN toolbar in Firefox???
It's strange that MS introduced Tab Browsing with a toolbar...
Posted by: Tobias on June 9, 2005 03:39 AMDoes anyone else find it funny that the MSN toolbar alone is almost 70% larger than the download for all of firefox?
Posted by: CFlakes on June 9, 2005 04:11 AM1. Asa, since you have already decided that anything from Microsoft is bad, why did u even bother downloading the stuff? Is it so that you could post this and not lose an opportunity to trash MS?
2. CFlakes, the MSN Toolbar includes desktop search.
Posted by: Bill Gates on June 9, 2005 04:23 AMI tried that a few hours ago, and yes, it sucks. :-/
And it evilly install MS Desktop Search for me. Ahhhh...
Posted by: minghong on June 9, 2005 05:02 AMFake Billy, Asa didn't decide that anything from MS is bad.
And not giving option to NOT install the MS Desktop Search is evil.
This is exactly what's wrong with M$. Instead of fixing their lame browser and windows search, they come up with some half-ass patches through MSN.
Posted by: Steve Jobs on June 9, 2005 06:31 AMYeah, its slow, after installing it, my CPU usage for "explorer.exe" increase 300%.
very small, and unstable tabs.
Is that a Beta of what they are trying to do in IE 7?
Due to the lack of a Windows installation, I've read the testimonials instead. Funny stuff.
Posted by: tveidt on June 9, 2005 08:26 AM"Ever been frustrated managing all those open Internet Explorer windows?"
Yes.
"With tabbed browsing, you can switch between multiple web pages in a single window. You can even save your favorite web pages and open them all at once with a single click."
This sounds like a browser I know ... how about we steal their marketing slogans and put them on the Firefox front page? :-D
Posted by: Foxtrot on June 9, 2005 08:27 AMI un-installed it after 10 minutes. Couldn't stand the flickering when switching tabs.
Also there was no option to middleclick or ctrl click links. You simply have to click the "open in tab" button in the toolbar? WTF?
Fake Bill, this has nothing to do with not liking Microsoft. The implementation simply sucks, try it yourself.
Apparantly, according to the IE blog, the tab implementation of IE 7 will be different from this one. If this one would be implemented in IE 7, then that would only be good for other browsers.
Posted by: José Jeria on June 9, 2005 09:26 AMelement: There's a screenshot of it linked from http://www.betanews.com/article/IE6_Gets_Pseudo_Tabbed_Browsing/1118258476
As an aside, ugh; what a horrible mess they've made of the top of their browser with all the junk there (tee-hee; see http://farm.tucows.com/2004/11/too_many_toolbars.jpg ) Long ago I realized that all the stuff one needs can be arranged into a single, neat and tidy line, like so:
[File Edit etc...] [buttons] [URL bar] [throbber]
Obviously, this doesn't work as well with lots more stuff (or wouldn't work as well with a smaller screen; I use 1024x768), but I hardly ever use much else from the upper rows. Plus its more room for tabs (Can you imagine too_many_toolbars.jpg with tabs too? >;)
Posted by: Limulus on June 9, 2005 04:15 PMthe flickering is really annoying, and it seems to have increased the level of CPU useage that IE requires by an un-understandable amount (if thats a word)
IE max. CPU useage so far: 50% (or 1.7GHz)
FX max. CPU useage so far: 15% (or 0.51GHz)
