Bing has completely redesigned its toolbar, called the Bing Bar. It is intended to operate like a dashboard rather than a conventional toolbar. In addition to search, users can get lots of information via drop-down windows: news, weather, maps, email, etc. Users can obtain and interact with their Facebook feeds, for example, without going to the site.
Microsoft estimates that 12% of searches happen through toolbars, and that toolbar users are more engaged and loyal. Bing is part of their customer acquisition strategy. Bing also captures valuable clickstream data from toolbars (if permitted by users).
Currently, the Bing Bar only works on Windows machines running Internet Explorer 7 or later.
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