As it announces global layoffs, Yahoo! seems to have begun fresh efforts to catch the imagination of the youth and leisure segments by enhancing the search experience. Its other target is those accessing the Web through mobile devices.

Struggling to face competition from Google, Yahoo! believes that the Axis service (which looks like the search box you get when you type Control F) launched on Thursday could be a game changer in the search segment.

“Unlike the routine results you get in normal search engines, this option would get you a strip of answers as they appear in the respective source Web sites.

It allows you to enter your search, see and interact with visual search results, without having to leave the original search results page,” Mr Shouvick Mukherjee, Vice-President and Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! India (Research and Development), told Business Line.

Users can download this free application on their devices as a desktop plug-in.

Answering a query on its failure to attract very young kids like Facebook and Google, he said Yahoo! has been trying to reach out to them in variety of ways.

Most of them are coming on to the Internet thru mobiles. The new initiatives are targeted at covering the mobile web experience.

Time Travel

Yahoo! is coming up with Time Travel, a city-specific service, that lets people to quickly check the best available tourist options in a particular city.

It is using the pictorial data it captures in one of its service Flickr (the photo sharing community). In the first phase, it will cover about 22-29 cities.

The list includes London, Dubai, but none from India.

Layoff impact

He, however, discounted fears of losing edge in research activity due to recent decision to lay of people across the globe.

“We (India) are not impacted much. In fact, we are recruiting people at senior level,” he said.

> kurmanath@thehindu.co.in

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