Ms. Dewey Isn't Worth the Wait

One of my favorite shows is the Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on CNBC. Tonight they discussed several innovative ideas including a "dynamic new website" called "MsDewey.com." The primary attraction to the site is suppose to be the lovely Ms. Dewey (see photo), who provides an interactive approach to search engines.

The site is the product of Microsoft and the lovely Ms. Dewey (played by actress Janina Gavankar) invites people to put a search item in, comments on your subject, entertains herself and the user while you scroll the results, and simply offers a unique approach to searching.

The site is suppose to challenge Google and other search engines with its unique interaction and beautiful model. I don't believe any of Ms. Dewey's competition are losing sleep. The concept seems like it would be attractive -- combine entertainment with searching. However, I think it fails on several fronts:

* It is extremely slow in its initial loading.

* It is very slow in its searches.

* It makes several mistakes. It does such often. I searched for several items that came up with thousands of responses on other search engines and turned up nothing on Ms. Dewey.

In my opinion, Ms. Dewey will not work because I believe people do not want to combine searches with entertainment. In my case, I will forget what I was looking for if I am sidetracked by entertainment. Mixing the two is very frustrating. Worse still, Ms. Dewey isn't that interesting. I find getting the exact information I want quickly to be far more enjoyable. I think most search engine users will agree.