do we really need another search engine from Microsoft?

[SensoVision]

I've recently become aware of new search engine from Microsoft called Ms. Dewey.
To me it's look rather like a toy rather than useful resource but maybe I'm wrong and there is really demand for something like this?
BTW I should tell that it's really slow, with my connection it "search"(downloading page) for result about 1 minute...

[donecweb]

I've seen it before by another name and think it is stupid.

[Queen Bee]

Hmm... I think it was annoying and senseless at best. And yes, it looks like a toy to me as well.

[Andy]

I enjoyed it but it does seem more like a gimmick. They could make it better if the woman responded in ways better related to the search terms entered.

[SensoVision]

I enjoyed it but it does seem more like a gimmick. They could make it better if the woman responded in ways better related to the search terms entered.

exactly or they could even do speech generator in order to tell about what was found or something, this way I could give more respect to this engine... but right now I only see them wasting money instead of using them to improve MSN engine which doesn't work very well at current moment.

[Queen Bee]

An interesting post on Ms. Dewey:

If you haven't seen Ms. Dewey, you will probably be hearing about her. She's trying to kill the memory of Jeeves, who you formerly asked. She's also a disaster as far as UI goes.

Built in Flash, Ms. Dewey is an anthropomorphized search page that features an actress. Ms. Dewey is only slightly more pleasant than Scuzz the Rat in Microsoft Bob who apparently spent about 20 minutes in front of a green screen making chit-chat that loops as you contemplate your search and the results. She gets impatient, calls "Type something here," taps the screen and asks if anyone is out there, pouts (she's hot, so she can get away with it like Jeeves never could, a conceit that is sexist on innumerable levels), but mostly proves, as Google Blogoscoped put it, that she—the search interface—is "inhumanly dumb."

She takes a long time to load and forces you to endure a joke before searching.

Ms. Dewey also takes her sweet time getting results and displays them in a window smaller than the actress, which is fundamentally missing the point of search. The delay seems to be due to the system examining the result to contextualize the performance, as there are reportedly some Easter Egg responses to the most obvious juvenile searches, like "boobs." It's the worst kind of abuse of user interface design and user time.

Who wants a search engine that pouts? Who wants a search engine that, as you browse the results repeats imprecations for attention?

Didn't the developer realize that the Mute button included on the home page was a clear sign they'd made something annoying?

Ms. Dewey is the wrong way to go about building a better search engine. From a business standpoint, who seriously thinks that the brand can scale beyond idle curiousity—can they chain this woman to her green screen for all eternity? I don't think so, and I hate to imagine the results.

Ms. Dewey is only slightly more pleasant than Scuzz the Rat in Microsoft Bob (who you cannot see here, thanks to Ms. Dewey, who doesn't do image search and took 14 seconds to display some Bob-related results, because she had a schtick to do).

God, I hate bad UI.

Article source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/?p=199

The article made several very good points about numerous issues with the project. However, I'd like to direction attention to one point in particular: as Mitch Ratcliffe pointed out, the project was created using more than subtle sexist, male centered marketing techniques. I think it's important to point out simply because it seems to be one of the more prominent purposes of the project. Does this concern anyone else?

[SensoVision]

The article made several very good points about numerous issues with the project. However, I'd like to direction attention to one point in particular: as Mitch Ratcliffe pointed out, the project was spawned using more than subtle sexist, male centered marketing techniques. I think it's important to point out simply because it seems to be one of the more prominent purposes of the project.
Does this concern anyone else?

Even now when I got ADSL it's loading very slow(I can't imagine for which bandwidth it was developed) and I didn't look at it very much to make any judgments about it's hidden context. I'm going to try faster speed from the 21 Oct, so if not forget I'll watch this engine once again with faster speed and return to your question.

[Queen Bee]

Even now when I got ADSL it's loading very slow(I can't imagine for which bandwidth it was developed) and I didn't look at it very much to make any judgments about it's hidden context. I'm going to try faster speed from the 21 Oct, so if not forget I'll watch this engine once again with faster speed and return to your question.

Thanks for your thought, Denis.
Microsoft's purpose and motives for the project seem a bit unclear to me, and I find it all a bit unsettling. This concept is nothing new, but I question the integrity of Microsoft. This a powerful, influential corporation that should and is required to bare responsibility for its actions. It seems as though they did not even consider the possibility and potential of negative response.