A Look at Microsoft's Tafiti, a Silverlight Powered Search Engine

Aug 27, 2007 - 9:44 am 1 by
Filed Under Bing Search

Last week, Microsoft launched Tafiti, a search engine that is powered by its new Silverlight technology. I played around with the features and have showed some screenshots of the new search engine in action.

Once Silverlight is installed, you see a nice little notepad where you can scribble type in your search.

Tafiti: Microsoft's New Search Engine

You're then presented with some results and can drag interesting results to a glass pane on the right hand side of your browser.

Tafiti: Results

Then, you can label these saved searches:

Tafiti: Add Results to Your Sidebar

The downside is that you have to turn off your popup blocker in order to see any selection. I found that a bit of a hindrance.

Tafiti: Turn off Your Popups

WebmasterWorld members feel that the saved search functionality is useful, but there's not much potential for Silverlight. After all, it is a direct competitor to Adobe's Flash which has been around for over a decade.

Even so, it has a "web 2.0" feel, which some members welcome:

Regardless of the result its always good to see companies experiment, especially with a user interface. That said, I think the site, visually, leaves alot to be desired. I have Visual Thesaurus, which I love to use, that makes Tafiti look pretty primitive, but the storing/sharing of multiple searches could be useful.

Others just don't see much use for it.

Google have it right...give people the results with a minumum of fuss and time. waiting for those animations every time I do a search would drive me up the wall.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

 

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