Downloading Or Not Downloading A Search Engine?

[moggie 939]

Thanks all for your help over the last week - my laptop is now running faster and I have my password retentions back.

Just one thing I do not understand. I uninstalled Bing entirely as it was causing me various problems and I had previously downloaded it - it was quite a few MB.

This time I just went into Bing as a search engine and did not download it, but just made it my default search engine.

So.......what is the difference in not downloading it? it does not appear anymore in my program list but seems to work ok and even better?

Thanks all

[Old_Geezer]

Didn't realise one could download Bing related stuff. What, was it a toolbar ?

[sunny-dave]

It's a windows desktop application, OG - sits on top of the standard one and adds all sorts of useful/useless extras - but it is resource hungry and can snarl up slower/older laptops.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah I see.

In which case the difference seems to be positive if one doesn't download it and does not feel hampered.

[sunny-dave]

To answer the original question :

You are using Bing as a search engine within your internet browser - you don't need to download anything to do that.

The downloaded version sits on your laptop and provides "an enhanced desktop experience" - with loads of extra features as well as 'search' - which may be useful, but may also slow down older laptops.

[Buenchico]

Accessing a search engine by going to a web page (e.g. here: https://www.bing.com/ ) is no different to visiting The Answerbank. i.e. you come to the page, enter your information, click 'Search' or 'Submit' and wait for the server to respond.

Installing a tool bar (which is what I assume you were referring to when you wrote 'downloading a search engine') makes a modification to your browser (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome) that theoretically makes access to the search engine quicker (and frequently offers lots of 'little extras' that you don't need anyway) but, because it's mucking about with someone else's software, has a nasty habit of causing problems.

I've never come across any third party tool bar that really adds anything wonderful to a web browser. They're just a waste of time in my opinion.

Further, a decent browser such as Firefox already has a search function built into it anyway. In Firefox you simply enter your search terms into the box at the top right of the screen. By default it uses Google as its search engine but simply clicking on the arrowhead at the left of the box allows you change it to, say, Bing.

[moggie 939]

Thanks all - I understand now! and thanks Benchico. Did not realise I could search using Bing in Firefox.
I did try another engine called igHome which was almost the same as my defunct igoogle (which I liked) - but my problem with this was that all my searches seemed to pick up loads from USA instead of Uk

Thanks again