Introducing sidebar search in Microsoft Edge

[mayusuf]

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

[#2]

You can close clicking inside the sidebar with mouse right button then in the big dark gray space, click with mouse left button.

Looks like there's bug that not allow appear the close button.

[#3]

@mayusuf One problem I have is right clicking on a search link results so that I can open the link in another tab. It results in a giant, mostly black window with a white 'L' in the middle. 

[#4]

Great feature and I'm very happy to see its return. Can you please add a keyboard shortcut?

[#5]

@mayusuf Sidebar is great but it seriously needs to have an option to get to Bing translate. I use Edge in my office and it would be great to select some text and have Sidebar open with the translation. 

[#6]

@Talon_38c You can use the "big L" to close the sidebar. If you want open link in new tab, you must right click on top of the search result.

[#7]

Wrong person. I'm not asking how to open a new tab.

[#8]

@mayusuf 

From a few days in the Canary Channel, the sidebar search is not working properly. The issue is that when I select to search a word or phrase in the sidebar, the sidebar opens like it is a tab with bing's normal webpage version with horizontal and vertical scrolling. If you open any other website from there, it opens in the sidebar in a vertical format like it should have been on the Bing sidebar search plus there is no close button to close the sidebar forcing me to close the whole tab.

I have sent feedback about this issue with the diagnostics through the in-app feedback tool.

[#9]

@TheShaunSaw  @mayusuf 

I only have the issue about the first part you are talking about.

[#10]

@ph_007 

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?

[#11]

Make Search Engine Configurable so you can add, and select to use, ANY search engine or search provider of choice. Don't limit users to Bing or Google. Yandex, Duck Duck Go, Alta-Vista and all the others help for various use cases.

Make a Search Configurator in Settings to select which/add any search engine/provider. This would improve Edge, not take use/users away from Bing. People who want to Bing It! are going to.

BYOSE (Bring Your Own Search Engine) would be a great ENHANCEMENT.

[#12]

While it seems it should be available, I don't see this option in the context menu when I right-click in Microsoft Edge Beta Build 85.0.564.18

[#13]

@scrbl You can add your own search engine. Anytime you visit a website that could be used as a search engine, it adds an option. That also includes websites you don't think of as search engines such as Wikipedia, library of congress, and YouTube. You can also manually add one in. You can see which ones you have available here: 

edge://settings/searchEngines

[#14]

Sidebar as an alternative for Cortana !!?
isn't Cortana supposed to be an AI assistant? sidebar is a simple area to do searches and browse.

[#15]

I find this feature quite useful, especially if I need to quickly get a definition for a word.

[#16]

@AaronMcHale 

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@AaronMcHale wrote:

I find this feature quite useful, especially if I need to quickly get a definition for a word.

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There is a faster way and it is not limited to Edge which means you can use it anywhere. just press Windows button on your keyboard on on the screen and start typing. that's it. you get definition and a lot of other things.

[#17]

Hi. It's only a replacement for the 'Ask Cortana' function, not the whole assistant functionality of Cortana.

[#18]

But they said that's just it and they are not going to implement any more Cortana related features to Edge.

[#19]

@mayusuf I was surprised to find that sidebar search didn't work with an address. I would have expected a bing map to show the selected address (like bing.com).

[#20]

s@mayusuf 

I think the sidebar search is great, but I don't see a way to close it when I'm done using it. Is it just me or is there a way to close it? Also, it would be great if you could customize it somehow. Just spitballing but could be an idea with sidebar 

[#21]

@rfreitaz Issue solved! We can close the side bar using the top right cross inside the sidebar.