Forum Discussion
MicrosoftIntroducing sidebar search in Microsoft Edge
Hello Insiders! We have heard your feedback and are excited to announce sidebar search - the first step in our evolution of contextual search in the new Microsoft Edge.
Sidebar search builds off the foundation we began with "Ask Cortana" in the previous version of Microsoft Edge and addresses feedback we received when "Ask Cortana" didn't meet your needs.
With sidebar search, you can highlight a word or phrase, right click, and select “Search in sidebar” from the context menu. Search results show up in a pane on the right side of the page showing you web results like definitions, web links, images, videos and many more Bing services which are related to the query.
We have added some new features to improve relevance and to provide user requested functionality that was absent in "Ask Cortana". In addition to the web results, you now see image and video verticals which show results related to the highlighted word or phrase. If you are signed into your azure active directory account at work, you can now see company results.
Sidebar search is a persistent pane in the tab in which it was opened, which gives you the option to close the pane or look up additional information related to other words using the search box. There’s more – if you want a full view of web results, you can now click on the “Open in new tab” button which opens the web results in a new tab.
You can expect to see sidebar begin to roll out in Microsoft Edge Dev and Canary channels very soon!
Thanks - Microsoft Edge Search team
124 Replies
Thank you for sharing.
There is one of the feature I missed from Internet Explorer which is Accelerator and I added Accelerator for the following:
Bing Map
Bing Translator
Send Email
I believe sidebar search could be smart in integrate with Bing and let say , if my default language for Microsoft Edge is English and I select text in Spanish, automatically show its translation (it should be general detection based on any language with Microsoft Edge and check default one and the select text one)
For the map, from the type of text it should be o detect the location and this could be integrate smart into the Bing.
Such a thing could be expand and become smart integration with Bing and let say it has Currency convertor, math , etc. when user select a text and do a search. More research should be done on this and you could get help from insiders like us.
As for send mail feature, it was like you select text and then you select send with Windows Live, it would open Windows Live Mail (today it is Outlook.com) and compose new email and add text into it. This is different story and there is need for different discussion about emails and Microsoft Edge.
However, my point is , it shouldn't be just a search instead it should be smart search to show result based on what has been searched and not just list of websites.
Woot, just tried out this sidebar search feature and it is great.. I Love it!! Thanks Team for another great addon feature!!
Dennis5mile
- I don't see it yet for me but I look forward to using it soon. I hate Chromes version where it opens a new tab.
I really love the feature, I used this feature a lot in Legacy Edge. I would like to suggest in this feature that can we have the option to double-click a word and search that word in sidebar. This would make things easier to search words in sidebar.
- Since this seems to replace Ask Cortana in the current version of Edge, will the other Cortana features make their way into Chromium Edge?
- Which other others are you reffering to?
mayusuf I, for one, am so happy to see this. I loved Ask Cortana in legacy Edge because it gave you quick access to some relevant search about something in a webpage without navigating away from that webpage. That is what made it great. It doesn't really matter if it's powered by Cortana or not. Can't wait to try this out in the preview builds. Thank you guys. Sidebar search is yet another standout feature for Edge.
- It's likely powered by Cortana but not branded as Cortana.
Good news! You can now find words or phrases on a webpage. Use shortcut Crtl+G on your keyboard
and a popup will come below the right end of the address bar and you can type word or phrase to find it on the page.TheShaunSaw Why do we need Ctrl+F and Ctrl+G?
That is great news. I would like to see it in Beta soon too. Did you think about customization? For example user can decide if search will be opened in new tab or sidebar?
It can be redundant or confusing for some users to have two different options for the same think with different only displayed location. Feature called "Ask Cortana" was almost the same, but the name was nicer for the users. Especially in countries where "Cortana" is badly supported this feature was working like this new "search in sidebar", example county is Poland or Czech Republic.
Meantime, I am worry about size of context menu. It is yet another position added. I hope we will not repeat mistake from Internet Explorer where context menu was extremally fast growing. I loved in Edge that browser started with very compact context menu and there are only essential options. Some users I seen with 10-20 items in context menu in IE and older versions of IE. Where most of them never used like print or print preview under right click.
Example attached.
Hi matt_bits
There is already an options which opens search in new tab.
Just select a word, right click and choose "Search the web for ...".
I also totally agree with you when it comes to the context menu. There are already options which are also in the ... (three dots) menu, e.q. Print and I would also remove "Open in Immersive Reader", because it can be accessed by the button in the address bar.
The toggle, mentioned by Pete_FFC , for developers could be integrated into the F12 DevTools.
100% agree abou the size of the RIGHT CLICK (Context Sensitive) Menu. Would be NICE to see a Toggle in Settings to Toggle the Menu Item icons OFF or ON.
One of the things I loved about Edge (Legacy) was the CLEAN (icon-free) RIGHT CLICK Menu, parsing text-based menu items just was easier for my eyes/visual input "bandwidth", and looked much more MODERN.
I feel the Icons that are populating the RIGHT CLICK Menu in Edge (Chromium) are GOOD: they are informative, and indicative of what the Menu Option it is Representing DOES or IS FOR.
However, I would REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate a Settings Option to Toggle Menu Icons ON or OFF.
Opinions?
Hi matt_bits , yes, I agree re: overcrowded contextual menu. I can't remember a time when I didn't have the attached in the menu, but I have no idea what they are. I assume they are for developers? It would great to be able to toggle certain elements to choose whether or not they appear in the menu.
Versutus
Hello, I have to tell you that I am an 83 years old veteran and to spend my time(alone) I like to try software. I really cannot help you except to say iit works or not, as I really do not master computers.
You may be better off using someone that is conversant with software. I really like the sidebar search. Plus you mentioned something about a Spell Checker that is something I really can use. I am a francophone but I like english better. My computer is in English but sometimes I need to send french email. If the Spell Checker will check spelling inn both languages that would be a really nice tool.
Keep up the good work, you are fantastic, also take care and wear a mask.
Regards Maurice Ledoux CD
