Do you Tafiti?

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taf One of the announcements last week was the launch of Silverlight.  Now initially I was like, big whoop, it is a new tool for developers and it does not impact the tools I work with. 

How WRONG I was (Yes,I can admit I am wrong).

So I had my good friend and developer guru, Bill Steele , educate me.  The tag line from the web site is Light up the web, and they are not kidding. I have to to tell you what folks the capabilities around digital media, performance and web has just exploded all over again for me.  For me it had the same effect on how I viewed the Internet when I went from a 2400 baud modem to high speed connectivity.    

I am not a developer but with Silverlight I can greatly appreciate how the tools  can increase  your, your business', and your customer's experience around web based applications.  Silverlight is a plug-in that works cross platform and cross browser, meaning this plug-in can work in IE6 or 7, Firefox or even Safari!  The plug-in allows you to take advantage of the client side processing power that traditional desktop applications have enjoyed, but now you can take advantage of the web deployment model.  It helps get the designers and developers all on the same page. 

So what happens when Silverlight collides with my huge passion around search, you Captureget?  TAFITI.  

Tafiti is the combination of the Live Search technology and Silverlight, to put it short it is simply amazing!  Tafiti, which means "do research" in Swahili, is an experimental search front-end that is currently in beta.  The search front end powered by live search is designed to have your search span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results. Tafiti uses both Microsoft Silverlight and Live Search to explore the intersection of richer experiences on the Web and the increasing specialization of search. 

I decided to do a quick screencast to let you see this amazing technology in action:

 

Screencast: Making Search Better with tafiti

 

Let me know what you think and I think you should give it a try!

Check out Tafiti here: https://www.tafiti.com/ 

To learn more about Silverlight take a look here: https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight

Also check Bill's blog he is doing a very good webcast series on WPF here:
WPF Soup to Nuts: Panels