The user experience that we’ve come to know and love is, when you think about it, quite flawed. Although we are only displaying a rather limited amount of data on our screen (whatever our screen resolution can handle), a lot of data is kept unused in the background, as a memory hog. It’s because of how a computer accesses data.

This has dealt us some serious restrictions. We stumble around the web, half blindfolded, only able to pan and search a seriously limited amount of data.

Or so it used to be.

The current tech revolution centers around a zooming kind of interface. Like when you’re using Google Maps, and the individual streets are only loaded (and only then start using up valuable memory) after zooming in. Microsoft Live Labs has been following tail in this revolution, and has worked up a number of revolutionary experimental applications. According to the team, Pivot is their most ambitious one to date.

Microsoft Live Labs’ Pivot

Pivot is based on a previous experiment called Seadragon, now dubbed Zoom.it and free for all. Just like Zoom.it, Pivot allows you to move and search through incredible amounts of data. But where the former could only exploit one huge picture at a time, Pivot juggles with thousands upon thousands of different files. It’s a new way to experience data.

At the heart of Pivot are “Collections.” They combine large groups of similar items on the Internet, so we can begin viewing the relationships between individual pieces of information in a new way. By visualizing hidden patterns, Pivot enables users to discover new insights while interacting with thousands of things at once.

All those tiny tiles in the screenshot above are high resolution magazine covers. And this is no static collage. You can, with a relatively small amount of memory, rearrange, and zoom in on that pile. With a modern household computer, there are no loading times, no lag, only the time it takes for your internet connection to download a few individual pictures. Because when you’re using Pivot, you only download what you see, and not what’s hidden behind binoculars.

We select a single tile and double-click. In seconds, we sweep in closer and get a full-screen view. Not only of the magazine cover, but of related information and suggested Bing search results.

There’s one fact we neglected to mention. Pivot is a web browser. That doesn’t mean you can surf MakeUseOf in this manner. Yet. But it definitely shows the power of the technology. As others get a chance to explore this platform, more collections will be created, and the web will be irreparably damaged with bouts of more awesomeness.

Sorting Data With The Speed Of Light

There’s more to Pivot than an oversized zoom function, though. The real power lies in the sorting mechanisms. You can easily and instantly filter that gigantic mountain of tiles. In the example collection above, by selecting sports featured on the cover, or the athletes’ leagues and teams.

Once we’ve narrowed our collection down, we’ll want to switch to graph view, rearranging the data into groups. For a moment, while you see those tiles fly around on your screen, I want you to imagine the amount of data embedded in those 7 resulting bars.

Here, the covers are sorted by cover date. You can easily sort it by other attributes though, depending on the data collection and the embedded information.

For more information, and a firsthand view, check out the video below:

Onlookers & Techies

Although Pivot is free, revolutionary and quite stunning, you’ll have to bear in mind that it’s still an experiment. Currently this means that it isn’t exactly easy to create collections of your own. The best GUI currently available seems to be Pivot Collection Maker, by y2k4life (third-party).

Pivot currently features a Collection Gallery. Most relevant are the sport-related collections, Wikipedia (highly recommended), Yoga Journal Featured Poses, AMG Movies/Actors and New/Concept Cars. The other available Collections can be seen here.

Until more home brewed collections find their way to the public, or you can find your way around the Collection Maker application, Pivot won’t be an application for daily use. But even as an experiment, it’s a wonder you have to see with your own eyes.

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.

Minimum Graphics Requirements:

• 256 megabytes of video memory. Pivot does not support most Intel integrated video chipsets.

Tagged: browsing tools • organization tools • tracking tools