Hasta La Gadget!

Rapture Bombing | A gallery dedicated to those who left us behind

More »

This article was written on August 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft launched a new search experiment yesterday called Tafiti. It’s primary goal is to demonstrate the power of the Silverlight platform, and there’s no doubt that it does a good job of that. As long as you have Silverlight installed you’ll be able to use Tafiti in Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer on both Mac’s and PC’s.

Tafiti, meaning "do research" in Swahili, is targeted at people who are doing research projects or need to gather up a bunch of information. It provides a simple way to manage your past searches and "bookmark" items that might be helpful to you.

Here are some of the things I liked about Tafiti:

• On the left side it shows a stack of index cards. Those contain your past searches, and pressing the "X" in the upper-left corner of a card will take you back through your previous searches.
• The carousel at the bottom-left cycles through the various types of searches you can do (web, images, news, feeds, and books).
• There are glass shelves along the right side where you can drag search results for later use. It’s kind of like a mini bookmarking system.
• You can filter your current results using the search box next to the tree.
• Clicking on the tree will pull up a tree view…literally. I can’t see myself ever using this feature, but it does look cool.

Tafiti is something that I would never really use because the results aren’t as "instant" as what I’ve become accustomed to on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Although I do think Microsoft is on to something with how they let users organize information. Why don’t search engines let us bookmark some of the results we find? Sure we can bookmark items in our browser, but something that is specific to search engines would help de-clutter our own bookmarks.

So I’m curious what everyone thinks about Tafiti? What are some of the things you like, and what are the things you don’t care for?

Sources: LiveSide & TechCrunch
Thanks for the tip “s”!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

Silverlight 1.0 Released – Linux Support Coming SoonMicrosoft Revamps The Office Online SiteUnlikely Partnership: Microsoft and RIMMicrosoft Employees Use Google To SearchMicrosoft Experiments with New Live Search Homepage

Sprint customers holding out for the HTC EVO 3D can now inch slightly closer to that glasses-free display — without dropping by RadioShack. The carrier has confirmed that you can reserve the WiMAX handset by visiting a Sprint-owned retail store and plunking down $50 for a gift card. There’s still no word on when you’ll be able to get the device in-hand (and the 3D’s exclusive carrier is mum on pricing), but, if you don’t mind reserving a phone without any hint as to how much you’ll eventually need to pay, then Sprint seems happy enough to swap your Grant for a spot on the list. It’s also taking names for the EVO View 4G tablet and, like the 3D, that $50 deposit can be used to take a bite out of a 2D handset. You know, in case you decide that a third dimension is too hot to handle.

[Thanks, Brett]

HTC EVO 3D, View 4G available for pre-order at Sprint originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 May 2011 10:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Reports are trickling in that Google has begun shipping the CR-48 to eager testers who’ve thus far been empty-handed after signing up for the units back in December. Could it be? Is the plucky prototype Chrome OS laptop getting a stay of execution after being declared all dried up back in March? That’s pretty unlikely, given the impending release of the Samsung and Acer netbooks that we saw announced during Google I/O. It seems a lot more plausible that the company is just exhausting the supply, so if you signed up late last year and haven’t received one yet, we wouldn’t recommend holding your breath.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Google’s CR-48 apparently shipping again, doing the prototype death rattle originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 May 2011 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Chrome OS Site  |  Reddit  | Email this | Comments

HP has already rolled out a few new Sandy Bridge laptops this month, but it’s now back with yet another: the Pavilion g6s. Like the still-available g6t and g6x, this one packs a 15.6-inch display with a rather lowly 1,366 x 768 resolution, but you can now get that paired with your choice of Core i3, i5 or i7 Sandy Bridge processors. Otherwise, you’ll get some fairly respectable specs across the board, including up 6GB of RAM, up to a 750GB hard drive, and optional Radeon HD 6470M graphics — not to mention your choice of four different color options. Of course, cost is still the main concern with the g6 series, and this one keeps things in check with a starting price of $550.

HP rolls out budget-minded Pavilion g6s laptop with Sandy Bridge originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 May 2011 06:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Laptoping  |  HP  | Email this | Comments