Silverlight presents tafiti - the web just evolved
I remember reading all the hype surrounding Microsoft’s release of Expressions Studio and the release of Silverlight, and even made a post about it, alluding to the inevitable crash course with Adobe that Microsoft had put itself on. Although made very casually at the end of the post, the most important point of the article was probably: it would seem the most important aspect of the release is a platform to push Silverlight.
Since then, I have read a few different points on the release; the most telling is probably from TechCrunch on Why Silverlight Is Important. In the article, Michael Arrington states:
For those of us watching the demos at the Mix conference the immediate importance of it was apparent - Silverlight will be the platform of choice for developers who build rich Internet applications. It makes Flash/Flex look like an absolute toy. After the keynote, the main topic of conversation in the hallways centered on just how effectively Microsoft carried out its execution of Adobe.
Quite a statement about the software giant. Using Silverlight, Microsoft has now released a new search engine.
With the release of tafiti, Microsoft has done two things. First, it will probably experience a spike in its search traffic. Although it is difficult to say whether or not anyone will adopt the service exclusively, this has to be a calculated move. If you think otherwise, then you have to ask why Microsoft continues to experiment with search engines, like Ms. Dewey, or put out search-based games. Undoubtedly, some users will stick to these wow search engines, and the data is probably important, too.
More importantly, tafiti provides an absolutely stunning view of the power of Silverlight. If there was anyone who doubted what was possible on the web, this is the evolution of the web. Rich, interactive, and no waiting for pages to load. Simply amazing.