Major search engines are employing new techniques to make the search process much easier for users. Microsoft, two weeks ago, tweaked its search engine Bing to display search results in three columns. Google, last week introduced the ‘Knowledge Graph’ to display associated search results based on people, places and things.
And now, Yahoo has launched its own search browser named ‘Axis‘ which stands out in displaying search results. Axis changes the usual way of exploring the web by users. It replaces the display of traditional search results links with a preview of web pages in a convenient visual format. Users can swipe across the visual results without leaving the page they are on.
Currently, the Axis application has been introduced only for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. But it is available as a ‘plug-in’ software for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and other Web browsers sporting HTML5 graphics capabilities.
“Yahoo is still very much in search, we continue to flourish.” said Ethan Batraski, project product management director at Yahoo. He added, “We removed the entire search results page from the equation for a game-changing search experience. The entire search is in the app. You will never have to use Safari ever again.”
Apple has built Safari web browsing application in its devices.
One of the prominent features of Axis is that, it displays additional information of interest of users. When a user searches for a sports team, it will display score from a most recent game. Axis also made it simple to email, “pin”, tweet or bookmark pages with simple screen touches.
Additionally, Axis supports synching pages across devices. If any pages, say for example driving directions, movie times or any pages that are left open on any of the gadgets, will automatically display on another.
Shashi Seth, senior vice president of Connections at Yahoo said, “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.
Yahoo will roll out the service of Axis to France, Britain and few other countries by the end of this year.
Leave a Reply