Tafiti
Encyclopedia
Tafiti was an animated
search engine
launched by Microsoft Corp.
and TrappsInteractive. Silverlight animation
and video player. It was launched in 2007 and was discontinued in 2009.
The name Tafiti comes from the Swahili
word meaning to "do research". The Tafiti search engine was a project driven by the Platform Incubation team in Microsoft as an effort to promote next generation search concepts and technologies such as Silverlight and the Live Search API.
Tafiti incorporated visuals with common web searches. Searches are presented, through a graphic interface, with results appearing in a central column. Via a carousel on the left hand side, users can select the type of media to search in; websites, news feeds, books or images. Results can be dragged and saved on a "shelf" on the right hand side. These results can then be e-mailed or added to a blog.
Tafiti also offered a "tree view," with search results displayed as branches.
On the Tafiti website, Microsoft said the service is designed to "Help people use the web for research projects that span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results." The service is intended to "explore the intersection of richer experiences on the web and the increasing specialization of search."
Tafiti was discontinued in 2009 with the release of Microsoft Bing. Source code was released in July 2008 on CodePlex as part of the Windows Live
Quick Apps project.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...
launched by Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
and TrappsInteractive. Silverlight animation
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is an application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, with features and purposes similar to those of Adobe Flash. The run-time environment for Silverlight is available as a plug-in for web browsers running under Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...
and video player. It was launched in 2007 and was discontinued in 2009.
The name Tafiti comes from the Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
word meaning to "do research". The Tafiti search engine was a project driven by the Platform Incubation team in Microsoft as an effort to promote next generation search concepts and technologies such as Silverlight and the Live Search API.
Tafiti incorporated visuals with common web searches. Searches are presented, through a graphic interface, with results appearing in a central column. Via a carousel on the left hand side, users can select the type of media to search in; websites, news feeds, books or images. Results can be dragged and saved on a "shelf" on the right hand side. These results can then be e-mailed or added to a blog.
Tafiti also offered a "tree view," with search results displayed as branches.
On the Tafiti website, Microsoft said the service is designed to "Help people use the web for research projects that span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results." The service is intended to "explore the intersection of richer experiences on the web and the increasing specialization of search."
Tafiti was discontinued in 2009 with the release of Microsoft Bing. Source code was released in July 2008 on CodePlex as part of the Windows Live
Windows Live
Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, part of their software plus services platform. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require...
Quick Apps project.