Microsoft has unveiled its new Bing Bar, a free browser toolbar designed to expose all the latest and greatest features of Redmond's search engine--many of which you may not know exist. To make all of this goodness happen, however, you'll have to open up a little--well, a lot--to Bing's toolbar, which collects information about your computer and searches, as well as the addresses of the websites you visit. Who knows, it may even be silently judging you as well. Microsoft has unveiled its new Bing Bar, a free browser toolbar designed to expose all the latest and greatest features of Redmond’s search engine–many of which you may not know exist. To make all of this goodness happen, however, you’ll have to open up a little–well, a lot–to Bing’s toolbar, which collects information about your computer and searches, as well as the addresses of the websites you visit. Who knows, it may even be silently judging you as well.Microsoft Bing: Five Areas in Search of ImprovementBing Bar works with Internet Explorer 7 or later on PCs running Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP with Service Pack 3. You can download it here. Its key features include Facebook and email integration, as well as the ability to push breaking news, traffic, and weather information to you.Facebook fans can get status updates simply by clicking the Facebook icon on the Bing Bar. A dropdown window shows a quick snapshot of what your Facebook friends are up to. You’ll see your news feed, notifications, messages, and friend requests. You can “like” items in the Facebook window, and post status updates and comments too. Bing Bar’s toolbar’s push capabilities are impressive. If you get a friend request, for example, it’ll appear as a pop-up notification.Bing Is Watching You As you surf, Bing Bar studies every move you make. Log onto you Gmail account, for instance, and a pop-up asks if you’d like to add Gmail to the Bing Bar. (This feature supports Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail.) Click “Yes,” and the toolbar grabs your login credentials, and displays your email messages in a dropdown box. To read a message in a new window, click it. To write an email, click the Compose icon in the upper right corner of the Bing Bar email window.The Bing Bar’s watchful eye monitors your shopping habits too. Let’s say you go to Target‘s website. A Bing Bar message will appear, asking which section of the retailer’s site you’re looking for, such as Electronics, Store Locator, and so on. It also hooks into Bing Maps to help you find the Target store nearest you.When there’s breaking news on Bing, you’ll get a message about it. Or you can click the News icon to read the latest headlines from Bing’s news page. The toolbar provides weather and traffic information for your city as well.If you’re not creeped out by having a search engine monitor your every move, the Bing Bar has a lot to offer. Contact Jeff Bertolucci via Twitter (@jbertolucci) or at jbertolucci.blogspot.com. Related content news UK government plans 2,500 new tech recruits by 2025 with focus on cybersecurity New apprenticeships and talent programmes will support recruitment for in-demand roles such as cybersecurity technologists and software developers By Michael Hill Sep 29, 2023 4 mins Education Industry Education Industry Education Industry news UK data regulator orders end to spreadsheet FOI requests after serious data breaches The Information Commissioner’s Office says alternative approaches should be used to publish freedom of information data to mitigate risks to personal information By Michael Hill Sep 29, 2023 3 mins Government Cybercrime Data and Information Security feature Cybersecurity startups to watch for in 2023 These startups are jumping in where most established security vendors have yet to go. By CSO Staff Sep 29, 2023 19 mins CSO and CISO Security news analysis Companies are already feeling the pressure from upcoming US SEC cyber rules New Securities and Exchange Commission cyber incident reporting rules don't kick in until December, but experts say they highlight the need for greater collaboration between CISOs and the C-suite By Cynthia Brumfield Sep 28, 2023 6 mins Regulation Data Breach Financial Services Industry Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe