Social media reactions to Yahoo! Axis: impressive on the iPad, risky on the desktop
The reaction to Yahoo!’s brand new visually enhanced browser, Axis, has polarized social media users. Many are impressed by the company’s iOS app while others urge users to be wary of the desktop plug-in.
On Twitter technology blogs are posting links to their reviews and Tweeps are using their 140 characters to weigh in on the new browser.
“Yahoo Axis Shines on iPad, an Afterthought on Desktop” says Mashable. CNET editor Rafe Needlemann says he is surprisingly impressed. He tweets, “Here comes Yahoo’s own Web browser, Axis. Surprising factoid: It’s good. cnet.co/JJ92f9.”
All Things D Co-Executive editor Kara Swisher links to her Axis article, tweeting, “Good Lord, I Might Now Want to Use Yahoo Search Again -- Product Dudes Talk About New Axis Browser (Video) http://t.co/Il8E4Fiz.”
Senior MacWorld contributor Glenn Fleishman jokes that “Yahoo couldn’t afford to get [the guy in the Axis Demo video] a shave, a haircut, or a T-shirt that fit him. Hard times. Hard Axis times,” while other microbloggers liken it to an Apple video: “Yahoo axis video looks so similar to an Apple video. Style. Dress. Music. Cuts. iPhone. Except the icon. That's from Adobe. Ridiculous.”
While technology blogs seem optimistic, consumers are complaining they are experiencing difficulties downloading the web browser plug-in and tweeting “Unable to download Yahoo Axis for Desktop #fail” and “Note to Yahoo! Axis developers - the link to download your brand new browser w/ new tech is broken on the download page.”
Entrepreneur and hacker Nik Cubrilovic also warns that “Yahoo included their cert private key inside the Axis Chrome extension.. (means anybody can sign extension as yahoo)..” People on both Twitter and Google+ are linking to his blog post about the issue.
Nik Cubrilovic later tweeted “re: Yahoo Axis cert leak somebody from Yahoo just replied to my post saying they disabled the Chrome extension” (which may be why users are experiencing difficulty downloading the plug-in) followed by “A new Chrome Extension for Yahoo! Axis will be published within 30 minutes, according to Yahoo!”
On Google+, Axis users are saying the web browser is “Impressive, I hope yahoo managers don't mess up this time. The best tech company with the worst management,” “Interesting but I doubt I'll change from Chrome. Its a good move but many years late” and “I've tried the Chrome extension and it's fairly good on the desktop.”
You can see a demo of Yahoo!’s Axis Demo here: http://screen.yahoo.com/yahoo-axis-demo-29368721.html
The iOS version of Axis is available as a free download here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yahoo!-axis-a-search-browser/id506520874?ls=%201&mt=8
The desktop plug-in can be downloaded from: http://axis.yahoo.com/
