Ms. Dewey was a
web search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, first unveiled in October 2006. Ms. Dewey was an
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia Computing platform, software platform used for production of Flash animation, animations, rich web applications, application software, desktop applications, mobile apps, mo ...
–based experimental interface for
Live Search
Microsoft Bing (commonly known as Bing) is a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. The service has its origins in Microsoft's previous search engines: MSN Search, Windows Live Search and later Live Search. Bing provides a variety ...
, where the eponymous Ms. Dewey, played by actress
Janina Gavankar
Janina Zione Gavankar (; born November 29, 1980) is an American actress and musician. She is trained as a pianist, vocalist, orchestral percussionist and majored in theatre at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her roles include Shiva on ''The ...
, acted as an interactive search assistant for the user's inquiries. Ms. Dewey notably would audibly comment on searched keywords, and she would also perform a variety of random actions when idle, including taking props out from behind her desk. Furthermore, a cityscape featured behind Ms. Dewey would appear to change depending on the time of day.
Ms. Dewey was developed by advertising agency
McCann-Erickson and digital content marketing firm EVB
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. Gavankar's responses, consisting of 600 different video clips, were recorded over the course of three days.
[Personal website http://www.janinagavankar.com][
Ms. Dewey became inactive in January 2009.
]
See also
* Bing
* Tafiti
*Ask.com
Ask.com (originally known as Ask Jeeves) is a question answering–focused e-business founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California, Berkeley, California.
The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky, from ...
*Office Assistant
The Office Assistant is a discontinued intelligent user interface for Microsoft Office that assisted users by way of an interactive animated character which user interface, interfaced with the Office help content. It was included in Microsoft Off ...
* The Subservient Chicken
* Microsoft Bob
Notes and references
{{microsoft-stub
Defunct internet search engines
Viral marketing