Microsoft Tafiti: Silverlight is pretty but doesn't really help you search

by Brad Linder Aug 22nd 2007

Microsoft's new Tafiti web site isn't exactly a new search engine. It's powered by Microsoft's search, so you'll get exactly the same results from Tafiti, MSN.com or Live.com. So what's the point of Tafiti? It's pretty.

When you first visit the site, you're prompted to install Silverlight if you haven't already. Then you're presented with a lot of empty space and a search box. When you enter your search term, you're subjected to a little flurry of activity. On the lower left side of the screen, a bunch of icons pop up. Click on them to see images representing your search results, RSS feeds that match your search terms, or a newspaper-like view.

You can also drag search results into slots on the right of the screen for saving, e-mailing, or blogging on Windows Live Spaces. If you're interested in all the bells and whistles, Tafiti is great. If you just want quick search results, you're probably better off with Live Search, Yahoo! or Google.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: live, live search, LiveSearch, msn, silverlight, tafiti

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ahoier said 10:35PM on 8-22-2007

eh....Im not really into the page, but what the ... I'll download and install yet another platform, cause I'm sure it'll soon be popping up across the web within a couple weeks...hehe.

Jim Lamb said 9:03AM on 8-23-2007

The problem is that it's not even that pretty. What's with the bizarre juxtaposition of simulated wood grain, ratty legal pad paper, at least 10 separate gradient fills, a swoop and the random collection of icons. Personally, I find it painful to look at even in this down-sized screen capture.

Ivan said 4:15PM on 8-23-2007

Yeah ... real painful. I mean the drowned out monotony of blue line after blue line on a white background is so pleasing to the eye.

It seems like the overly visual UI is the way to go nowadays (read:overdone iPhone graphical crap), so this should be very popular.

And how doesn't it help you search ... you type in query, it returns results ... sounds helpful?

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