{"id":2132,"date":"2009-11-19T14:43:14","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T09:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beingmanan.com\/wp\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2012-04-01T15:46:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T19:46:57","slug":"microsoft-live-labs-pivot-to-the-web-first-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/2009\/11\/microsoft-live-labs-pivot-to-the-web-first-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Live Labs&#8217; Pivot To The Web &#8211; First Look"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"justify\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot logo\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1p204961lS8yIpOm-IvPff76_AXPseSrW03kalCMgLOaSw3jmY_uaOUBCglAp73sRty6j8S17olzEjzcLwn7OipA\/logo-pivot.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot logo\" width=\"153\" height=\"64\" align=\"left\" \/>I\u2019m a big fan of Microsoft Live Labs. Actually Microsoft Labs itself. In case you didn\u2019t know, Microsoft\u2019s Professional Developer Conference 2009 or PDC09 is happening. A lot of announcements have been made in the past two days and if something\u2019s clear then it\u2019s Microsoft\u2019s intentions for the web. Azure, Sharepoint, Silverlight 4 and even talk about Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 are all indicators. In one of the sessions Microsoft Live Labs demoed a project called <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/getpivot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pivot<\/a>. Tom Warren over at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.neowin.net\/news\/live\/09\/11\/18\/microsoft-live-labs-introduces-pivot\" target=\"_blank\">Neowin<\/a> attended that session. While Pivot is in some form of limited availability build and one requires an invite to get access, you can get one too. So here\u2019s what Pivot looks like:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pGVTViw7Xqb-MmZoaqMjfQ32rxG1jiIgd1t1jNK29vW9-6-iF0LwAopOLq9Qj5R-efXw2lh8v58hGa5cIwVjo0w\/full-screen-big-01.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot home page collection\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pp9hM1A85eIe2Ez8jfsOHI53phBhUWJYaRIdU0AYNjeQ_WQdgTB_Ije4BowH09x4iCR8_uBxDDGaY87VAf4aw7w\/full-screen-small-01.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot home page collection\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">My first impression was that this is the good old <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/MSN_Explorer\" target=\"_blank\">MSN Explorer<\/a> on steroids :D Pivot is a browser with a focus on categorization and filtering the results. This isn\u2019t meant for your Facebook and Orkut or even Twitter (that doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t). This one\u2019s for finding information and data based on extensive backend categorization. Data &amp; information is put into Collections and anyone can create these collections, some of the collections that come when you install Pivot are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>US Presidents<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>World Leaders<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Concept Cars<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>New Cars<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Actors<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Sports<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Animals<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\">From what it seems, it looks like integrating the vast data collated by Bing and showing it in a more usable and beautiful <em>browser<\/em> to give you a better experience in obtaining detailed information. And it\u2019s not just generic information from the web that\u2019s pulled but Microsoft has even integrated an option to access the Xbox Live Marketplace. You can now search for game information based Genres, Price, Rating, Dates, Developers. These categories vary from collection to collection. For cars, you\u2019ll have Manufacturers, Body Style, Transmission, Fuel, Engine Type etc.\u00a0Here are some more screen shots of Pivot:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The Xbox Live marketplace:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1p3nV8YoThPYONFEg8sWZ_S-IKja94r9ieb2uaHBFE_pyU_WLSLGVXUj38LzRR76oOF3KTHr3WNK7kiyrIOvZEYQ\/xbox-market-place-01.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot Xbox Live Market place\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pOtntyKFgrDt_1gqchCd2RyJICb0xkCE4zkTZR3KaXiU2V2Oz4TYwzjirsWcto4XLlfL-CZPnCwlgwuuWEOMXYg\/xbox-market-place-01-small.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot Xbox Live Market place\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">You can view data as a graph bar or a grid. The Xbox Marketplace screen shot is the grid view here is the bar graph view:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pu5FVcvYxWnKeiWFMt8YMIQxAQb_LxHbFqoD1m9OJyoUFXXu6pgMnfXKp8MapmZJXplJvKEWgdQrC-TIGmH4g6w\/full-screen-big-02.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"microsoft live labs pivot bar graph collection view\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pGGCPxaZ6cX5kkNfKjz9stNOqWr2FoOugukpkw1dlNzJWUuYWTD8R4syK86fLUkuKELwh1JpmgRnxiSnZ2XXa2A\/full-screen-small-02.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"microsoft live labs pivot bar graph collection view\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pBXXrrrgfU2LFumAKS923-zlVVZQGLVyKn08MSCeWwlfVp2491AJ47l1bhKEKfPMKnM0d-9jRe6b9kxeBhrHTmg\/full-screen-big-03.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"microsoft live labs pivot bar graph collection view\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pPZmkf8I3Qa4kSvHI8-2d8op7Q9aa8UxVu8b7xOfv9BohjLqXQyg6o38tlblWi-96peypIJMnsrWudlDC_Fmr2w\/full-screen-small-03.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"microsoft live labs pivot bar graph collection view\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The Filter bar on the left &amp; the description on the right:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1pHNEuAorBipWF1BLyIrySf_ZfpomHZbJ2yQOZKCCYmQdTRFqV9Rw7Ley02d9yKdOxq_I1jgSj2ULTRmFX6X3PaQ\/sidebar-descriptio-big.png\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px\" title=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot Collection Filter and categories\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1paSshIdR8PbCXvV76XMFyfbUWxhC9HEIqZ_eQM2vBhrVjaS2rToXBnkP6l_GEIdR2k7ZlbVVLnT_GyYfpAbfLhg\/sidebar-descriptio-small.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot Collection Filter and categories\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The top bar allows you to change the size of the thumbnails, go back and forward, visit your recent pages and enter a URL. The bottom bar you have the options of opening new tabs, going to the home page or the Collections page:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot Bottom bar tabs collection\" src=\"http:\/\/public.bay.livefilestore.com\/y1p59JxmHVAo-VZVSDLBTigGJTBeykFwrR06KjT7uymLsN6RdSrJ3PfNkCAdJDmgMTw_vR8tgYtvnLIdbnUp1EbUw\/pivot-bottom-bar.png\" alt=\"Microsoft Live Labs Pivot Bottom bar tabs collection\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">What make Pivot so damn interesting are two things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>the really slick and beautiful UI (which is now becoming a trait in the Live Labs team.)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>the extensive and detailed filtering and categorization \u2013 this is the next web.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"justify\">For what it\u2019s worth Pivot might make it to the iPhone (like <a href=\"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/2008\/12\/first-look-seadragon-on-iphone\/\" target=\"_blank\">Seadragon<\/a>) we don\u2019t really know the future plans but Kip from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.liveside.net\/main\/archive\/2009\/11\/18\/new-from-live-labs-pivot.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">LiveSide<\/a> had the chance to interact with the genius behind the project &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/presspass\/exec\/techfellow\/Flake\/default.mspx\">Dr. Gary Flake of Live Labs<\/a> and this what he had to say:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p align=\"justify\">Here at Live Labs we\u2019re all about experiments, and Pivot is our most ambitious to date. Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun. We tried to step back and design an interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of information rather than the traditional structure of the Web.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"justify\">Since I now have the full version of Camtasia, I thought of doing a quick video of me playing with Pivot, here it is:<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-2132-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/x-flv\" src=\"http:\/\/blip.tv\/file\/get\/IMav-MicrosoftLiveLabsPivot490.flv?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/blip.tv\/file\/get\/IMav-MicrosoftLiveLabsPivot490.flv\">http:\/\/blip.tv\/file\/get\/IMav-MicrosoftLiveLabsPivot490.flv<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.getpivot.com\/download\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"download microsoft live labs pivot\" src=\"http:\/\/beingmanan.com\/dl.png\" border=\"0\" alt=\"download microsoft live labs pivot\" width=\"125\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><del datetime=\"2009-11-19T11:30:01+00:00\"><strong>UPDATE: <\/strong>I&#8217;ve got a code that can be used by 9 guys other than me, drop me a comment and I&#8217;ll email it to you on the address you supply in the comment form.<\/del><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><strong>UPDATE #2: <\/strong>I think I&#8217;ve crossed 9 time usage limit of the code.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">~Enjoy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft Live Lab&#8217;s newest project &#8211; Pivot a revamped browser based on categorized online data presentation to the user with a beautiful UI.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-wrapper\"><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/2009\/11\/microsoft-live-labs-pivot-to-the-web-first-look\/\" title=\"Read More\"> <span class=\"button default\">Read More<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow7K6iCw:productID":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[37,6],"tags":[387,710,555,536,569,709],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing-and-internet","category-microsoft","tag-browser","tag-concept","tag-first-look","tag-live-labs","tag-microsoft-research","tag-pivot"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3963,"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions\/3963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beingmanan.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}