Bing Toolbar Update Brings Facebook Chat, Slacker Radio, More

The Bing Toolbar is one of the better toolbars available for Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Not only in terms of functionality that it provides, but also in terms of updating and improvements that the Redmond company adds to its search engine's toolbar regularly.

Besides offering direct search capabilities, the Bing Bar offers weather report information, news, maps and Facebook integration among other things. The majority of features open up in overlays on the screen, so that it is for instance possible to use information posted on a website in the toolbar. One example would be to look up an address on Bing Maps directly, or display Facebook's news feed right on the screen without visiting the site first.

Facebook integration is one of the strong points of Bing Bar. Not only can you open the news feed right from the bar, you can also use the like button to like any content on websites right from the toolbar.

The latest update of the Bing Toolbar introduces two new features, of which one is Facebook related. The Facebook chat button on the toolbar allows Facebook users to chat right from the toolbar. Bing Toolbar users need to connect their toolbar with Facebook to make use of the feature. Once that is done, they can chat with their Facebook friends from any website they are on.

The second new feature is integration of Slacker Radio, an Internet Radio station. This feature requires the Adobe Flash player plugin to work at all. It basically allows Bing Bar users to listen to Internet radio while they are surfing the web.

Version 7.1 of the Bing Toolbar ships with an improved news module that makes news more accessible. Plus, breaking news are now triggering notifications (which can be disabled in the toolbar settings).

The last new feature are search suggestions which are now displayed when you search using the Bing Toolbar search form.

You can download and install the new Bing Bar at the Discover Bing website.

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