It includes a toolbar plugin for Internet Explorer as well as a standalone Desktop Search application. I WON’T be trying it - why? I don’t trust Microsoft’s search technology - they dumbed it down for XP and have you ever tried searching the Knowledge Base with Google instead of the MS seach? You get a lot better results with Google. Also, with all the plugins for indexing various file types, it’s almost 32 MB - and you need the plugins to be able to search all but the most common file types.

It might be useful for those of you sticking with IE on earlier Windows than XP as it includes a popup blocker.

As reported by Stefanie Olsen of ZDNet:

Microsoft has released a final version of its desktop-search software as it tries to enhance its presence in the burgeoning market staked out by rivals Yahoo and Google.

Microsoft, which is laboring to catch up in Web search, has taken advantage of its software background to create an Internet application for finding documents on the hard drive. The MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search, released Monday, is a free download that searches over e-mail, Word documents, PDFs and Web pages, among other file types.

After five months of testing the software and 1 million downloads, the company has unveiled an update with several added improvements. Those include capabilities to preview desktop search results in a windowpane, which is characteristic of Microsoft Outlook.

[Continue reading Microsoft Ups Ante In Desktop Search]

[Download the MSN Search Toolbar here - FREE]

[MSN Search Toolbar plugins are here - FREE]

[More MSN Search Toolbar plugins are here - FREE]