I’ve been using the newly launched Tafiti search service from Microsoft. Here’s a couple of observations:

1. It’s beautiful, no question about that. Fast too.
2. The underlying search engine feels less than Google, which in this day and age is the benchmark by which search is measured. I’d give it a Google .8 rating (a rating of 1 being as good as Google).
3. I can’t use  the "find" feature in my browser.
4. The Tree View is fun for about 7 seconds, then it becomes irritating.
5. The News and Images category displays are very cool, I’d use Tafiti for news search alone. As good as News and Images are, the Blog Feed category was completely useless in terms of results and the way they are presented.

Tafiti is a great demonstration of the potential that Silverlight gives web developers but as a search service I’ll likely pass. User interfaces can’t hide the shortcomings of the underlying service, and they certainly should not get in the way of the service itself, as is the case here.

Tags: Tafiti, Microsoft