If you're waiting for Microsoft to field "Scout," a Microsoft-Research-developed search applet designed to help users navigate Office 2007, don't hold your breath.
It sounds like the Office team has no intentions of letting users try Scout, even as an optional downloadable add-on. Chris Capossela, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Business Division, told me this week that the Office folks view Scout as a proof-of-concept app, nothing more. The Office team decided, after extensive user testing, thta the Ribbon user interface is intuitive enough the way it is, and that adding another search tool on top of it would be superfluous and potentially confusing, Capossela said.
|