New Drop Down Search Button Feature For MSN Search

SEO Roundtable reports that MSN Search has added a new drop-down search button for quick access to several search options (so far, it only works on PCs). They are:

• Web
• News
• Images
• Look up word
• Encarta
• Stock quotes
• Find Movies
• Shopping

rustybrick likes them, although he notes that "Most usability experts, I think, dislike drop down menus". I think its great, since it eliminates the "Tab problem" and drives users to use features like Encarta they might not otherwise. Still, I think any good search engine needs as many "invisible tabs" (those little boxes that give you results from other areas of the search engine, like two News results in a regular search) to be properly useful, so lets hope we see some of those as well.

You know what would be a great feature? Custom searches in the drop down box. I'd like if instead of using the search builder, I could program in options from it that I commonly use. Just a thought.