Aug
23
2007Tafiti - Microsoft Bob for Search?
23
2007
OK. I’m always reluctant to jump on any anti-Microsoft bandwagon, partly because I worked there for a year and learned that it’s not 50,000 person army of evil - it’s mostly just a bunch of people looking to make cool and useful stuff (with mixed results). So I try to give them the benefit of the doubt. But, then I’m disappointed when the bandwagon seems to be right.
Microsoft recently launched “Tafiti“, a search tool based around their new, ahem, “Flash-killer”, Silverlight.
Clearly what Microsoft was attempting was to demonstrate the Silverlight platform as it could apply to something practical, like search. They obviously aren’t claiming Tafiti is the Search Engine Of The Future.
Wanting to see the glory of Silverlight in action, I actually went ahead and installed it on my MacBook Pro - Yes, Silverlight is cross-platform - assuming your platform is Windows or Mac - and went to Tafiti.com
I was expecting to see beautiful, smooth animation effects - you know, something that would demonstrate why you’d want to build a site with Silverlight instead of Flash (which 98+% of Internet connected computers have installed).
What I saw was jerky animation more associated with mediocre DHTML. Hardly an argument for abandoning DHTML, let alone Flash. As for the search functionality itself… Well, reread this post title.
I’d disagree with you on the ‘bob’ aspect of this, as it looks more like a research tool than a casual search tool.
kingofmashups 8/23/07 @ 9:33 amI don’t think any serious researcher would appreciate wasting load and rendering time on simulated index cards and card catalog drawers (how’s that for an outdated metaphor?)
Jeff 8/23/07 @ 9:45 am[…] Here is more - http://www.chausse.org/2007/08/tafiti-microsoft-bob-for-search/ […]
Sasha Sydoruk » Blog Archive » Silverlight - I really wanted to like you, but… 9/27/07 @ 1:58 pm