In addition to the other new features added to Bing on Dec. 2, Microsoft now offers the Bing Bar for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The downloadable application grafts a tool bar to your Web browser, allowing one-click access to various Bing features such as Shopping, Video, Web Search and Maps, as well as instant access to news, stocks, weather and Hotmail.

The Bing Bar also includes features such as Search Assist, which displays suggested searches when the user begins to type a term into the search bar, and Browse Plus, which alerts the user to breaking news in specific categories. Microsoft likely hopes that Bing Bar will help its search engine gain traction as it seeks to compete with Google in the search engine space.