Yahoo has unveiled a new type of search
platform that it hopes will restore the struggling web pioneer to
something of its former glory.
Released late Wednesday by the Silicon Valley company, Axis, as it
is known, is currently available as an app for Apple's iPhones and
iPads and as an extension to the top four desktop browsers Internet
Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
Unlike traditional search platforms, Axis works as a stand-alone
ribbon that users can bring up from the base of their screens,
showing scrolling snapshots of the web pages that it believes a
searcher is looking for. The platform allows users to carry searches
over from one device to another.
"Our search strategy is predicated on two core beliefs: one, that
people want answers, not links, and, two, that consumer-facing search
is ripe for innovative disruption," said Shashi Seth, senior vice
president at Yahoo Inc Connections. "With Axis, we have redefined and
re-architected the search and browse experience from the ground up."
The Axis debut came shortly after both Google and Microsoft
announced major revamps of their own search engines. The launch was a
surprising move from Yahoo, which shut down its own search engine and
began to use Microsoft's Bing in 2009.
