Gadgetory

a new browser from yahoo was released Wednesday with versions for both iOS devices and plugins for Google Chrome Firefox and Safari I'm Jason proctor for cnet and this is a first look at yahoo's access web browser yahoo says it wants to redefine the way you use search on your iOS devices in your desktop and after using the app for a little while I think access offers a pretty unique and intuitive search experience let's get started by touching and swiping downwards to open the search interface the first thing you'll notice is that access list trending searches and you can touch each text search term to see the latest headlines relating to a topic if you want a more visual experience access offers thumbnails of the websites to find the search results you want you also have the option to look at image thumbnails relating to the topic by touching the button at the bottom of the interface and selecting image search once you have chosen a page to look at this setup makes it easy to go back to your search results when it's not what you're looking for simply swipe downwards from the top again and you can view your previous search browse through thumbnails and select another page one word of warning you'll need to be careful not to swipe down from too high on the page will open your iOS 5 notifications panel if you discover a website you want to look at later you can either save it as a bookmark or add it to your real ater list to save as a bookmark just touch the star icon to the left of the Yahoo logo and select where you want to put it now when you touch the silver ribbon on the far right you'll bring up your bookmarks and read later links for easy access if you have a lot of bookmarks you can also use the search bar at the top to drill down the access web browser has a visual system for tabs simply touch the button at the bottom of the interface and you can view thumbnails of tabbed web pages if you want to add a new one hit the plus sign to bring up the access home screen here you can choose one of your favorites something you post it as a read later page or you can use the search bar to find a new site at the bottom of the access home screen you also have a section called continue from device if you log in using your yahoo account ID on every device you'll be able to view searches and sites you looked at on another device this is true for the desktop as well access offers plug-ins for google chrome Firefox and Safari so if you login to access with your yahoo account on both your iOS devices and your favorite web browser you'll be able to continue your browsing experience from anywhere this means that you could be looking at websites on the way to work then switch to your desktop to continue browsing the same sites on the desktop versions the experience is slightly different instead of the touchscreen pulldown tab you'll be performing searches from a small window where you can also look at the axis home screen and browse your favorites and read later stories axis also offers some sharing options for when you want to send something of interest to friends or social networks simply touch the share button to send a link by email pin it to your Pinterest board or send a link to Twitter for your followers overall access doesn't offer all the features of a full-fledged web browser but it does have a slick interface for performing web searches saving webpages and sharing sites with your friends you can grab access for free right now at the iTunes App Store that's it for this first look at yahoo axis i'm jason parker for cnet thanks for watching