Introducing Pivot, from Microsoft Live Labs

A new prototype from Microsoft Live Labs is designed to change the way in which the end users look at the Web. In this regard, the Redmond company explained that Pivot was a project dedicated to make the Web more like an actual web, and less like a series of disparate pages. “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,” reads an excerpt of Pivot’s introduction.

At this point in time, although the testing program for the Pivot project is live, access is restricted to just a small pool of customers. According to the Redmond company, the Technical Preview is full, with the company having already distributed all the invitations to the first testing milestone. Still, users that want an invite can submit their email address and wait for a notification from Microsoft. The software giant made no mention as to when it planned to open the testing program for Pivot to additional testers.

“When we use the Web today we treat the most fundamental scenarios as separate activities. Search takes us from many things to one, browsing moves us from one thing to another, and recommendations expose affinities that enable us to explore related topics. Can we do better by combining these scenarios into a more unified experience?” Microsoft asked. “Pivot focuses on this intersection, enabling us to learn key lessons while attempting to broadly apply this philosophy to the Web. We hope that Pivot will inspire and fuel transformative experiences across the Web.”

The Redmond company explained that Pivot core was based on the concept of "Collections." What “Collections” are designed to do is to bundle large quantities of information together based on similitudes between them. In this context, objects with similar characteristics are grouped together, and served as a Collection to users, which are free to explore the relationships between items.

When it comes down to system requirements, Microsoft recommends “Windows 7 with Aero enabled, 2-GHz 32-bit (x86) processor, 2 gigabytes of random access memory. Supported System Configuration: Windows Vista with Aero enabled, 2-GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor. Graphics Card Requirements: at least 256 megabytes of video memory. Pivot does not support Intel integrated video chipsets without additional acceleration hardware. Pivot requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Internet Explorer 8. Pivot will import your browsing history from Internet Explorer and Firefox during installation. Windows XP is not supported at this time. Pivot is not compatible with Windows Server Editions.”