SEO News - The Optimizer

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Tafiti Source Code Launched As Windows Live Quickapp

Earlier today, Microsoft released the source code for its Tafiti search engine on Windows Live Quick Applications.

To recap, Tafiti (which means "do research" in Swahili) is an experimental front end for Windows Live Search which enables users to gather information across multiple search queries and sessions as well as visualize, store and share the gathered results.

For the developers among you, it's well worth a look. For those who are still unfamiliar with Tafiti, head on over for a test drive.

Labels: live, search, tafiti

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Survey Says: Changes May Be In Store For Live Search

Sometimes product team surveys pose more questions than just those meant to be answered by the participants. Surveys like this one, which contain the usual questions relating currently implemented vertical search engines contained in Live Search, such as Health, Video and Shopping, but also alludes to possible functions to come:

searching online to plan for a trip or vacation
searching online for news
what tools could a search engine provide to enhance the look and feel of the initial search page and the layout of the results page?

A travel vertical search engine would be intriguing, especially if combined with the new image and video search, which would provide stunning, powerful results.

A real time news search would be no less startling. Though news search is available, the current incarnation dates back to MSN Search and just isn't up to the same game as, for example, Google News, which is itself by no means perfect. If Microsoft can put a News search in place that's on par with the rest of Live Search, they stand a good chance of one-upping Google... at least, for awhile.

The next Live Search update is projected for early '08, so it's a case of wait and see. But what we see so far makes us think the short wait will be worth it.

Labels: google, live, msn, search