It’s a bold move to Yahoo! to do, but they have come out with their own browser. Calling itself a “Search Browser“, Axis has added many features to not only go to web pages, but also search on relevant content. With the tabs browser below and a login system to personalize experience, this might just be the browser to replace Safari on the iPad.
Right now, Axis is available for iOS devices, and as a plug-in for Chrome, IE, Firefox and Safari. Axis works like Google Chrome – you enter a web page or search term into the bar, and get results.
Axis on Searching
A pull-down menu shows you alternatives to what you are searching for. So if you were looking for “American Idol Winner”, you could flip between the American Idol homepage, Wikipedia’s entry on American Idol, or a multitude of news sources that are currently talking about American Idol. Best part is you don’t have to leave the page you are currently on to do a quick search and find out that Phillip Phillips is the 2012 American Idol Winner.
This is perfect for doing research, like looking up someone’s twitter handle, or finding a web page to refer to.
Axis Login option, Facebook, Google, but no Microsoft?
Yahoo! understands that you might not have a Yahoo! email address to login with. Therefore, they give you an option to also login to the browser using your Facebook or Google accounts. Conspicuously missing is the option for Microsoft’s Windows Live login. After all, isn’t Yahoo! using Microsoft’s search engine?
If you are accessing from the desktop, you will have to head to Yahoo!s login page. If you have a Yahoo! account, it will assume you want to sign in with that. To get the desktop add-on, go to http://axis.yahoo.com/
Move Across Multiple Machines, Keep the Same Pages Open
With Yahoo!s Connected experience, it allows you to move from mobile device to notebook or desktop without having to re-open pages. This is perfect for someone like me – I can set up my podcast show notes, then log into another computer and have the pages automatically load.
It also syncs your bookmarks, browsing history, and saved searches.
Yahoo! Axis seems to be an interesting little browser. With the ability to sync, it will probably replace Safari on my iPad.
Axis Tabs Option
Tabs on Yahoo! Axis are along the bottom on a pop-up option. You can add a tab (by pressing the “+”) or remove it (by pressing the “X”). Run multiple tabs for easy access to pages.
Axis on the Browser – The Return of the Yahoo! Homepage?
If you install on your browser, you will see a bar on the lower-left hand of your browser. Hover over to expand across the screen, and hit a button to expand. up. You can access your tabs and other search queries. It does take a little bit of time to understand (The ribbon on the left side will open your bookmarks, for example).
For the couple of hours that I have played with it, I am pretty impressed with Yahoo! Axis’ functionality. It does have the ability to bring up Yahoo.com – a page I haven’t really seen since 2001 when I was a lonely IT desktop specialist tasked to change the default browser homepages to the company’s website.
It might be a good addition to my browsing…
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