msn

Search toolbars may be the most common of Firefox add-ons, and not without reason, since they let users quickly search the Web directly from the toolbar. Groowe Search Toolbar for Firefox adds a customizable metasearch toolbar to your Firefox interface. It automatically and simultaneously queries a list of search engines that you specify, returning more results more quickly than searching each engine one by one. It searches not only a variety of popular search engines but also Wikipedia and social media and sharing sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Digg.

We installed Groowe Search Toolbar and restarted Firefox. The new toolbar … Read more

Yesterday the Windows Live team at Microsoft announced the release of Messenger for the Zune HD.

I'm not much of a Messenger user, but one of the big things Microsoft added to the new version of the desktop app is Facebook integration, and that same functionality is built into the Zune version of Messenger. After connecting your Facebook and Windows Live accounts, you can see all Facebook updates and conduct Facebook chats from within the Messenger app. (There's already a standalone Facebook app for the Zune HD; this new app is best suited for users who straddle the … Read more

The social network stands up to Googlezon's net neutrality proposal, and meanwhile plots Foursquare's demise. Also Farmville pulling up stakes at MSN, and your car's tire pressure sensors can be hacked by drive-bys. Everybody panic!

It's taken Microsoft a long time to produce an IM app for the iPhone. Now it has, hours before Apple released the fourth version of its iPhone operating system, we might add.

Windows Live Messenger for iPhone has many of the features we'd expect to see in an IM app, plus other social networking and e-mail extras. One screen is devoted to Windows Live, for example, offering space to update your status, follow friends in your network, and change your profile picture. A small button also take you into your e-mail in-box.

In the chewy center of the … Read more

It's more than a little ironic that the new "Glo" Web site--a highly stylized women's lifestyle destination that MSN just debuted after midnight today in partnership with Hollywood's BermanBraun and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.--will likely be one of the online media sites that shine best on the new Apple iPad.

Even though it was conceived before the tablet was even announced and currently uses Apple-barred Adobe Flash in its headline rendering (soon to be adjusted), Glo is actually more aimed at upending the notion of what makes a good women-focused Web site.

With … Read more

Microsoft's MSN China venture is losing a key executive.

Vice President of Sales Xiao Chen is resigning from his position at the end of March to start his own company, a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters. Chen has been with Microsoft's Chinese MSN venture since its start in 2005.

MSN China has struggled to gain a foothold against QQ, a Chinese social network service that has grabbed a sizable percentage of China's Internet users.

And late last year, MSN China got into some hot water after it was revealed that its microblogging site Juku lifted programming code from … Read more

Microsoft says MSN's new look is ready to share.

Since last year, the company has been testing new designs for the venerable portal, including one that features a cleaner, more video-heavy look for the site. Over the coming days, Microsoft is rolling out the new look to all MSN visitors in the United States.

Although portals like MSN, AOL, and the Yahoo home page are sometimes scoffed at by the digerati, such sites remain an important generator of searches and display advertising dollars.

"MSN plays a number of critical roles for the company, and certainly for the Online … Read more

We spent quite a bit of time with MyLastSearch, and for the life of us, we just can't figure it out. We understand what it's supposed to do; the publisher's description clearly states that it "scans the cache and history files of your Web browser" and returns a list of previous queries made with search engines. Though it does perform this task--to some extent--we couldn't figure out why anyone would use this utility instead of searching within the browser itself.

The program's interface is plain and fairly intuitive by virtue of the fact … Read more

The past few days have been good for Google. First it was a hot new Google-branded cell phone, followed up shortly thereafter by a new link-shortening service. This may seem like a very common feature these days with services like Bit.ly, but keep in mind that Google's big business is ads. The more it knows about where people are going on the Internet, the more advertising power it wields.

We also lead today's podcast with a developing story about a potential code ripoff of Plurk.com by Microsoft's MSN site in China.

Today's stories:

Microsoft pulls China site amid code-theft charges… Read more