The past few days have been a success for Yahoo. Ever since the recent CEO change, Yahoo managed to sell 20% of its Alibaba stake and earlier this week it launched its own browser. Given all the longtime problems it had, Yahoo’s hopes are in Axis browser. If this fails, everything is shot to hell.
Over the past few years Yahoo has been having quite the rough patch. High management changes were ordinary in the company, as no CEO was found to have the key to the company’s success. Although it remains one of the biggest companies in its field, Yahoo has long left the top of the online industry.
With Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft making the rules of the game, Yahoo hopes its new browser Axis will be the game changer. The truth is that Axis does come off as an innovation. At least from an aesthetics point of view. Unlike the rest of the search engines, Axis display search results in webpage previews.
Ethan Batraski, special products management director for Yahoo, talked about the visual component of their new browser. From what he says, Yahoo’s bet is on “visually rich search experience” alone.
“By supercharging the browser with a visually rich search experience and seamlessly connecting that experience across all of your devices” says Batraski, “we are delivering an experience that will change the game”.
At the moment the game changing experience is available only in the United States. You can find a version for your i-gadgets in Apple App Store, as well as (free) plug-ins for your current web browser, be it Safari, Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer. Android users will have to wait a bit before they can try the Axis on their gadgets.
Shashi Seth, senior vice president of Yahoo Connections, said: “With Axis, we have re-defined and re-architected the search and browse experience from the ground up”. The two elements at its core are “one-that people want answers, not links and two, that consumer-facing research is ripe for innovative disruption, especially on the front-end”.
According to Ian Maude of Enders Analysis, Yahoo’s Axis browser might be quite successful. “What is neat about this is that their user interface helps reinvent search by allowing people to swipe and flick through results” explains Ian Maude, adding that for touch screen gadgets that’s quite a perk.
