Microsoft has been kind enough to give me a limited number of invitations for readers of Searchblog to grok Pivot, which I wrote about here last week.
In that post I promised to grok Pivot, then report back more here. Alas, Pivot is currently Windows only, and – alas – I am currently Mac only. I do have a couple of PCs in my house, but they are owned by my son and my wife, and it’s fair to say I’m not eager to to use them for experimental installs. My son in particular will kill me if I touch his machine (though I’m pretty sure he’s going to download Pivot before I ever do).
Anyway, those of you with a PC and a desire to check out a new approach to search, you’re in luck.
Head to the Live Lab’s Pivot page, and when you hit the download button, enter this code during the install process:
A1C8 7318 57F3 E92C
But hurry. This code expires after a certain number of you use it…..Tell ’em Searchblog sent ya, and please, let me know what you think. I wish I could play with it…
Update: There are some international use issues, from Gary’s email explaining it:
…we think your readers are encountering another issue which is summarized with a work-around at:
http://www.getsatisfaction.com/live_labs_pivot/topics/no_setup_internet_connection
Basically, in order to release the Pivot as early as we did, we chose to defer fully internationalizing the code. As a result, Pivot will not cooperate with a system that is non-English and non-US. However, some of our users have reported that by changing the system defaults for language and location, they have been able to successfully install and use Pivot.
System Requirements
Recommended System Configuration: 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.
Pivot is supported only on US English-based operating systems with US English date and time formats.
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.
argh, it just run on Vista and 7. great, since I use XP 🙁
Can’t get it to work. Keeps crashing on me. Win 7 x64. I’ve tried several tweaks and it still crashes. I will try it on a different PC next.
Looks like getting to the activation page may not be open to as many readers as you 1st thought John – also running XP here and not likely to ‘upgrade’ for a few months yet… The video looked interesting, I was keen to try it out 🙁
Guys, check the update….some help there on the problems using it
Thanks. Worked for me (I wonder how they plan to expand on this, but unless you can browse through millions of topics it doesn’t seem too impressive).
I think the specs needed for installing pivot are far demanding than what an average PC user has. I for example, still use Windows XP, IE7 and hardware with Intel integrated video chipsets. So there is no way I can try this software till I buy a new system