Ms Dewey should just shut up and search!
Check out Ms Dewey, and then you'll understand why Google has nothing to worry about.
Ms Dewey is a front end for the Live Search -- Microsoft's answer to Google. Ms Dewey is a...well...it's hard to explain. Part stand-up comic, part tour guide, with a hint dominatrix.
Just go and use the Ms Dewey front-end yourself and then come back.
Three things to remember:
- A web search is a step in the process of getting information. It is not the end of the process. As a step it needs to be fast and efficient. Any layer of gloss had better add real value (that is, improve my search results) or else it is just a drag on my efficiency. In the time it takes for Ms Dewey to complete her bit that plays after I initiate a search, I would have already evaluated the Google SERP and would have already reached my first site to check out.
- Remember the interface model. When you don't type anything, Ms Dewey taps on your screen or performs other bits to remind you to type something in. That breaks the GUI contract. A GUI is driven by events. Window controls lie inert until you click on a button or pull a scroll bar, or until some external event occurs, like a new mail message is detected. A web app like a search engine ought to similarly wait patiently until I call on it to do something by clicking the Search button.
- Even if you think the Ms Dewey interface is cute, the best front end won't matter if the search engine is lousy. I typed "average vocabulary size" because my daughter had asked me last week how many words I knew. I assured her it wasn't a million-billion, but at the time Googled for the right answer (in the range of 20,000). See what would have happened if I had been using Ms Dewey at that time instead. My daughter would have been treated to some bit about strip poker followed by search results starting with average penis size. Clearly the Ms Dewey responses are driven by the top results returned by the search engine. That MS Live Search thinks that I'm really concerned about my penis when I asked a question about vocabulary reduces what little value-add Ms Dewey has to zero.
Microsoft launched Ms Dewey in October 2006, but is not marketing it. It is depending on word-of-mouth and media coverage to pull in users. Fine, but if Microsoft wants to keep users coming back, they ought to get back to work on getting the search engine right.
Users aren't stupid. A user will be annoyed if a product or service fails to perform very well. A user will leave and never come back if it looks like the company offering the product or service doesn't care much about how badly it performs.
Skew my story on Skewz.com
Rate political news for their bias, read related stories, and leave your own skewed commentary
Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords
Ms Dewey Live Search Microsoft Google Web 2.0 search engine
Sphere presents related news articles and blog posts
Sphere It!
Comments
Miss Dewey is annoying but she has other attributes that are enchanting
Posted by: Fred at September 14, 2007 12:18 PM
Asked a couple of simple biblical queries returned amazon.com links. Not helpful.
Posted by: iowavette at September 14, 2007 12:54 PM
Actually, I thought it was pretty funny.
It has a couple of canned responses to make it seem like it understands your query. Click on the "Best of Dewey" button to see what I mean.
Posted by: ss_doug at September 14, 2007 01:17 PM
Ms Dewey is funny when you first try it out. You enter queries to see if you elicit funny responses. It's a game. But then later you stop playing and start working. Then Ms Dewey becomes a liability. When designing for usability you have to think about how people will use the page. Seems obvious, but with Ms Dewey, the thinking is that people will use the page for entertainment. I think if you checked, you would realize that people use search engines to find something entertaining, and not to be entertained. And moreover, that's what they want.
Posted by: Steve Janke at September 14, 2007 02:42 PM
I repeated Mr. Janke's search and got similar results.
While waiting, she seemed to be converting cm to inches but dividing by 25.4 instead of 2.54. I wasn't paying alot of attention so I could be wrong.
I did the "best of dewey" button a few times. The second time I was assaulted by a bleeped out rant by the woman, that would be wholly unappropriate for my 2 year old son.
MS shoots and misses again.
Posted by: dkjones at September 14, 2007 03:58 PM
I tried Ms. Dewey out today. Not funny, not fast and not useful. This is one of the worst ideas I've ever seen.
Posted by: petri striko at September 14, 2007 04:04 PM
LAME-O
Posted by: RightJab at September 14, 2007 04:20 PM
...what about Bob?
Posted by: tomax7 at September 14, 2007 06:14 PM
...what about Bob?
Posted by: tomax7 at September 14, 2007 06:18 PM
...dunno about Bob, but Firefox insists of posting twice out of the blue for some reason...sorry.
Posted by: tomax7 at September 14, 2007 06:22 PM
Janina Gavankar is the model...google her...she did some soft-core porn/slasher films...go figure!
Posted by: at September 14, 2007 08:00 PM
Janina Gavankar is the model...google her (or just go here: http://www.toxicmagazine.com/680.shtml)...she did some soft-core porn/slasher films...go figure!
Posted by: at September 14, 2007 08:01 PM
Does she look like a cartoon paper clip?
Posted by: at September 14, 2007 10:31 PM
P.S. This shows why government attempts to limit monopolies are a waste of time. Any company which achieves a de-facto monopoly position (that is, excluding de-jure monopolies which are created and enforced by the government at gunpoint) will by virtue of its market domination become deaf and blind to the needs of it customers and will inevitably ride its old, cash-cow products to doom while smaller, nimbler and more attentive competitors steal their lunch.
Note that patent and copyright laws however are government attempts to assist the creation of monopolies, and they are of course enforced at gunpoint, and their only result in practice, far from benefiting the public, is to make it more difficult for small companies and individuals to compete with large companies (the ones who can afford legions of lawyers and huge political bribes, er, donations).
Posted by: at September 14, 2007 10:45 PM
I checked out Ms. Dewey as I'd never heard of it, not surprising really as I don't use MSN or MSNBC. The interesting thing and why I won't use it is the requirement that you have Macromedia installed. I don't use this as it just slows things down and causes other problems while surfing.
Posted by: Phillip at September 15, 2007 02:23 PM
I also checked out Ms. Dewey as I'd never heard of it, not surprising really as I don't use MSN or MSNBC. The interesting thing and why I won't use it is the requirement that you have Macromedia installed. I don't use this as it just slows things down and causes other problems while surfing.
Posted by: Phillip at September 15, 2007 02:26 PM
Double post as Firefox returned a 500 error the first time.
Posted by: Phillip at September 15, 2007 02:27 PM
I think that Ms. Dewey should follow Clippy.
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070211
Waste of time while the interface loads.
Waste of time trying to scroll through the results.
And she won't STFU when you are following the results!
Easy on the eyes though.
Of course, Googling "Janina Gavankar" gets far more results than Ms. Dewey does...
Posted by: Another Sean at September 15, 2007 11:59 PM
Dumbest idea for a search engine...ever.
Only from the so-called "minds" at Microsh*t could something this retarded see the light of day.
Surely the architects of this pathetic effort must be a little embarrased at the end result...?
mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm
Posted by: mhb at September 16, 2007 09:50 PM
Ms Dewey is funny when you first try it out.
-- Agreed.
You enter queries to see if you elicit funny responses. It's a game.
-- Agreed.
But then later you stop playing and start working.
-- If you must.
Then Ms Dewey becomes a liability.
-- No, then Ms. Dewey becomes Google.
When designing for usability you have to think about how people will use the page.
-- Agreed.
Seems obvious, but with Ms Dewey, the thinking is that people will use the page for entertainment.
-- Agreed.
I think if you checked, you would realize that people use search engines to find something entertaining, and not to be entertained. And moreover, that's what they want.
-- Smart a**.
-- :)
Doug
Posted by: ss_doug at September 17, 2007 01:21 PM
Ms.Dewey doesn't do it for me.though I may look up her soft-porn.
Posted by: wallyj at September 17, 2007 04:39 PM
Abstract paintings
Angel painting
animal paintings
ballet paintings
beach painting
Boat painting
building painting
Children painting
Christ painting
church painting
City painting
Cottage painting
Dancer painting
field painting
Floral paintings
Garden painting
Hunting paintings
impressionist painting
Knight painting
Lady painting
Landscape painting
Lighthouse paintings
Music painting
Nude painting
Oriental paintings
Piano painting
Seascapes paintings
Still Life paintings
street painting
sunset painting
Tropical paintings
Venice paintings
Village painting
wine painting
Posted by: aswkin at July 17, 2008 03:40 AM
 
|
|
