The tree view sure is cool, but
it's function is unclear.

Designed as a powerful research tool, Microsoft has launched a preview of experimental site Tafiti.com, which will compete with Google.

Though it isn't the simplest of online apps, it sure packs a punch in the visual department.

The new search tool is powered by Silverlight, Microsoft's new graphic plug-in, which falls into direct competition with Flash.

Silverlight, which is browser-friendly and a quick download, allows for a number of Tafiti-based visual treats which Microsoft hopes will turn searching into an "experience."

Through the new tool, users can conduct a single search across the web, blogs, books, news and images, then filter specific results onto savable "glass" shelves parked next to the results. Hand-picked research is represented as books, photographs, and torn bits of paper. Users can also blog or email shelves to one another.

The app evokes a drawer in an old desk, complete with a metal label holder and typewriter font, an aesthetic designed by Jackson Fish Market, according to the Globe and Mail. If so inclined, users can see searches represented as a tree with each search result slowly spinning around it.

The new app seeks to position itself as the anti-Google. Shunning the simplicity Google is known for, Tafiti expects to turn search-based research into an involved (and potentially very busy) experience.

View a video about Tafiti here.