"These latest add-ins provide people with the opportunity to add value to their MSN Search Toolbar for one of the most popular online activities - online games - while protecting their browsing experience," said Dane Glasgow, product unit manager for MSN, as MSN today unveiled two new MSN Search Toolbar add-ins: the first phishing filter for any web search toolbar and easy access to MSN Games.

These latest add-ins for MSN Search Toolbar include a beta of the Microsoft Phishing Filter Add-in, which helps protect customers from potential risks of phishing Web sites and online identity theft, and the Games Add-in, providing one-click access to some of the Web's most popular online games via MSN Games.

"Our ongoing mission for MSN Search is to help people find precisely what they want and seamlessly access the information they care about," Glasgow added.

The Microsoft Phishing Filter Add-in is the first such technology to be integrated into a Web search toolbar, says Microsoft. It is aimed at helping provide powerful dynamic protection against "phishing" Web sites - fraudulent Web sites that resemble those of legitimate businesses, financial institutions or government agencies to convince visitors to disclose sensitive personal and financial information that can then be used for criminal activity such as identity theft.

If a customer inadvertently visits a potentially fraudulent Web site that can steal the customer's personal information, the beta Microsoft Phishing Filter Add-in will proactively help protect the customer. The new add-in uses a dynamic system that quickly checks the Web pages customers visit with an online service with up-to-the-hour information to see if the sites they visit are suspicious or actual reported phishing Web sites. The filter will block customers from entering personal data if the site is confirmed. If the Web site contains characteristics common to a phishing Web site, but is not in the list of known sites, the MSN Search Toolbar will provide a warning and give people the option to continue or close their tab in the toolbar.

The new Games Add-in provides one-click access to MSN Games, one of the web's most popular online destinations for gaming. This tool delivers a pull-down menu of links to that day's most-played games, with the option for people to add their favorites, join the action and see how many other gamers are involved. The Games Add-in lets users play a daily trivia question directly from their toolbar, and players can guess the answer or get a hint from MSN Search.