All of the major search engines are experimenting with new formats intended to make it easier for users to find information without clicking through to page after page of results. It’s Yahoo’s turn, and they’ve decided on a new browser enhancement they call “Axis.” It alters browsers made by other companies to display search results in a more convenient and visual format.

It’s similar to Google’s Knowledge Graph, but it’s key difference is that it will operate across different web browsers.

The AP has more on the current search standings:

Much like Google’s Knowledge Graph, Axis draws its results from a custom-built index. Most of the data in the Axis index resides on Yahoo’s own services. If Axis can’t find answers there, it presents links from Bing’s search index.

Yahoo has relied on Bing’s technology since 2010 as part of a decade-long partnership formed to lure users away from Google. So far, most of Bing’s gains have come at Yahoo’s expense, but Yahoo was losing search traffic well before it began leaning on Bing.

Yahoo’s share of the U.S. search market stood at 13,5 per cent through April, down from nearly 25 per cent five years ago, according to the research firm comScore Inc. Bing holds a 15,4 per cent share, up from 9,4 per cent five years ago when Microsoft operated a search engine under a different name and system. Google’s share has climbed from 56 per cent five years ago to more than 66 per cent now.

Axis was released in Apple’s app store late yesterday, and this debut version will only work on Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

The software can also be installed as a plug-in on most major browsers used on desktop computers and laptops. Apps for other mobile devices are in the works, Yahoo says.

Of course, the obvious obstacle is the fact that so few people use Yahoo to search, and that many of them feel Yahoo gave up on innovating search when it joined forces with Microsoft, and started relying on Bing.

The AP continues:

Yahoo is counting on Axis to reverse its steadily declining share of the Internet’s lucrative search market and bring it more traffic from among the growing number of smartphone and tablet users.

Its greatest appeal figures to be on mobile devices because users with the app installed can see their search results at the top of the screen just by flicking on whatever page is displayed. The relevant results appear in a ribbon of Web page snapshots, making it easier for users to find the right information.

And, your privacy is obviously fairly irrelevant with Axis too, as it is with most web activity these days:

In an effort to make Axis even more useful, Yahoo plans to store search activity on its servers so users can have access to their past activity on any computer or mobile device where they log in. Axis will accept the logins that people use on Google and Facebook, as well as Yahoo.

Click HERE if you’d like to give it a go on your desktop browser, and HERE mobile app.

[Source: Yahoo]