To all the librarians in the crowd...

[kickaha]

And I know of at least a couple that read this from time to time...

Exactly how offended *are* you by Microsoft's new search engine, Ms. Dewey? (MS Dewey, get it? ahahahaha. sigh.)

I really can't imagine a worse or more annoying interface for searching. Well, except for Bob. Or Clippy.

I wonder if she gives a demo if I search for 'lap dance'?


Warning to Mac users: "Coincidentally" this site has caused Safari to crash twice out of three visits today, when I haven't had it crash in... months. Hmm.

Comments

[morgyne.livejournal.com]

Safari made this noise where I think it realized that "Ms. Dewey" had bigger hooters than it.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's just... wow.

Oh hey, here's a fun one - I *did* search for 'lap dance', and she verbally replied "I'm pretty sure in 38 nations you can be arrested for even thinking of something like that." before giving results.

Wow! What a warm and fuzzy feeling that gives me!

Jesus, this *has* to be a joke.

[morgyne.livejournal.com]

I'm totally showing this to my PI tomorrow when she asks if I looked up the answer to what was wrong with my protein preps. I'd be like "But Ms. Hootars said-" and then she'll make me go back to my cage.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Oh do! Do! PIs *LIVE* for that sort of thing!


Really!

:D

*hee* I wonder if I can get away with that at work?

[badger.livejournal.com]

I loaded the site and was going to search for something offensive. But when Ms. Dewey appeared she was carrying a Bowie knife the size of her forearm. She sharpened it, then tossed it offstage at some target. Seriously.

I just bring that out in people sometimes.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

You are so making that up.

On the other hand, she mimed lassoing me into the frame, and fishing my way as well. I *suppose* those are supposed to be "I'm gathering data" and not "Come hither", but in the end they just look stupid. :P

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

Would that he were, my friend, would that he were.

[badger.livejournal.com]

You are so making that up.

You believe my other stories and doubt this one? No, no, honest, that's what happened when I loaded the site with the intent to see what would happen if I searched for something more offensive than "lap dance". See? ginkgo supports my claim, by implication. (I also saw the lasso and fishing behaviors when I first looked at the site a few(?) weeks ago, I think when I first saw this site mentioned on metafilter.)

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Well, crap. I also totally forgot that "sitting at M.'s computer" means "LJ thinks I'm M." Obviously I should have gone to bed first.

I totally missed that that was a Microsoft site. Likely a technology demo, to get some buzz going for MS Live.

When I typed in "lap dance", she said, "Well, maybe just this once" and unbuttoned her blouse. No lie.

Of course, they jerked the picture around and masked out the interesting parts with a "video buffering" icon, so I didn't get to see anything.

"hooters" got a response of, "Boorring!", which was pretty funny.

Welcome to the Web, 2.0. "How do you want us to chew up your bandwidth today?"

And then I went to bed.

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

K is such an UI Idealist that he couldn't really stand to read many reviews. :( I think he can't really wrap his bwain around how awful Ms Dewey is.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

I prefer the term UI snob, actually... ;)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

"Look! It's a serious tool! We *swear*!"

Oy.

[franktheavenger.livejournal.com]

I like how she's figeting trying to feign interest while you're typing.

[dj-mouse.livejournal.com]

As a former librarian, it is a little bit annoying.

[badger.livejournal.com]

Idealist, snob. Much the same to me, except in the quality of their response: idealists tend, in my experience, to sputter more when confronted with items outside their criteria of acceptability. So sputter: idealist. View with disdain: snob. :) I rarely argue with anyone else's self-identification, so snob is fine by me.
(Oh, I thought about reloading the page to cycle through the opening animations until I saw the Bowie knife one again so I could get a screen capture for you, but I wasn't willing to subject myself to that...thing enough to get there. Apologies.)

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

I thought you were all joking, but I typed in "stem cell babies" (didn't want to look for anything too racy at work) and she shouted, "Honey, have you seen my birth control pills?"

Greeeat. Let's hope no coworkers come over to ask what the hell is going on.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

I've been saying for years that it's too damn easy for people to get onto the Internet. Both "content" providers and consumers.

Ah, for the days when the technical hurdles provided a filter...

And yeah, I know that that attitude is inconsistent with how M. and I have made our livings.

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

She didn't even do a decent job of pretending to know how to sharpen a knife. So sad.

I used the word "idealist" because I knew it was a weaker word than his conviction (in his mind.) Tee hee!

*waves at k* :D

[badger.livejournal.com]

Sure, and this interface doesn't allow me to see how much he was sputtering in righteous indignation or disgust, so I can't tell which term I'd consider more valid from over here :).

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

Obviously, we need a "Mr. Kickaha" app, that brings the joy of prerecorded, animated snarkery to our desktops.

Hell, I'd _pay_ for that.

"What's that, Liam? You don't want to go to bed? Well, let's just see what MR. KICKAHA has to say about that..."

http://mrkickaha.com

MR KICKAHA: What the hell do _you_ want?

ME, TYPING: 4-year-old boy won't go to bed

MR KICKAHA: Oh, for crying out loud. Do you know how much we spent on building this engine and storing the video? More money than you're likely to ever make in your lifetime, if you can't even get your kid to go to bed without the help of a freaking computer program. Look, here are a bunch of books on parenting. Go away. And, kid? GO TO BED. You need all the sleep you can get if you don't want to end up like your parents. Break the cycle of stupid, kid. We're all counting on you.