Yahoo! came at the tech world in a blur this week, launching its new search and browsing tool Axis. Response has been lukewarm, especially since the launch didn’t go completely as planned.

I’ve been playing around with both the desktop and iOS version and I think that Yahoo! might be on to something. I took a dive into Apple’s App Store to see what users think and was surprised to see 891 reviews and a 4.5 star rating. That’s a good sign, right?

As I dug deeper I saw some slightly familiar names sharing their thoughts on Axis. Have a look:

That’s a pretty sweet review…from Yahoo’s Patent Counsel, David Ishimaru.

Here’s another:

Right on, great review…from Yahoo’s Network Operations Center Engineer, Brian Koch.

There are plenty of reviews from regular users though, but before I leave you for the day, check this one out:

Someone thinks it’s an awesome browser! Wait, that’s…Yahoo Director, Product Management, Ethan Batraski.

Keep your Kool-aid nice and chilled this Memorial Day weekend, kids!

According to Jason Del Rey of Ad Age, Yahoo! is closing up shop on its Android and iPad “Flipboard clone”, Livestand.

The service was announced last February, showing that Yahoo! was doubling down on mobile. Livestand was a mobile newsreader for tablets, a space that had many players at the time.

In February of this year, Yahoo! announced that its “mobile first” initiative was in full swing, immediately closing these apps:

• Yahoo! Meme (iPad and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Mim (iPad)
• Yahoo! Answers (Android)
• Yahoo! AppSpot (Android and iPhone)
• Yahoo! Deals (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Finance (BlackBerry)
• Yahoo! Movies (Android)
• Yahoo! News (Android)
• Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone)
• Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search (iPad and iPhone)

Looks like Livestand didn’t fare so well, either.

Now that Yahoo! has shown us what it has in store for search and browsing with Axis, perhaps the company is focusing on that product intensely.

While there’s nothing wrong with shutting down a project that hasn’t gained traction, it certainly doesn’t make Yahoo! look like a potential winner in the mobile space.

Now that we know what Yahoo! Axis is, and that it’s a pretty good product from what I can tell so far, there’s a huge winner.

That winner? Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Since the desktop version of Yahoo! Axis is simply a browser extension, that means that Yahoo’s search deal with Bing drops its search box on top of whatever page you’re on.

Instead of building its own desktop browser, which would have taken quite a long time and been a nightmare to support, Yahoo! decided to skip all of that and slip in the backdoor, by making itself extremely prominent.

If, and it’s a big if, Axis can grab a sizeable userbase, then Microsoft Bing just scored itself a whole slew of new search users.

Say I’m hooked on Axis, use its iPhone and iPad apps, I dig on its homepage. Then I visit Google.com. I’m presented with an alternative search option, Bing:

The search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! was made on July 29, 2009, and nearly three years later, Microsoft just got Christmas in July a few months early.

Combine Axis with its newly introduced redesign and Bing’s not having a bad month. Can Bing pick up a considerable amount of ground on Google’s search dominance? Only time will tell.

According to LAUNCH, Yahoo! was set to release its own browser, called Axis, tonight at 9PM PT. Apparently someone jumped the gun though, because details, including its live iOS app, have been discovered.

Our own Robin Wauters stumbled onto Yahoo’s trademark application for Axis last December, wondering what it was. Its website: http://axis.yahoo.com/, has all of the details along with the download link.

From the demo, the browser looks like it takes Google’s autocomplete to a whole new level by bringing up pages on the right hand side as you search for them.

Have a look at Yahoo! Axis in action, which installs an extension for your existing browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, or Firefox) and sits in the bottom lefthand corner:

Once you click the search box, it expands to show you the results:

In addition to the desktop version, Yahoo! released an iPhone and iPad app (which you can download now) as well:

The iPhone version is pretty slick, as you can see below:

The iPad version clearly uses the full real estate of the larger device:

In an email sent to LAUNCH, Yahoo! outlined exactly what makes Axis different from its competitors:

Yahoo! Axis is a new browser that redefines what it means to search and browse- enabling a seamless search experience on your iPhone, iPad, and even your desktop. Here are some highlights of how Yahoo! Axis brings search to life in a whole new way:

·Smarter, Faster Search with Rich Design: Get instant answers and visual previews so you can continuously discover and explore content without interruption. Never leave the page you are on to view your search results again.

·Connected Experience: Move seamlessly across devices, picking up wherever you left off as you move across your desktop, iPhone, and iPad. Recently visited sites, searches, saved articles, and bookmarks are automatically accessible across all your devices.

·Personal Home Page: Get direct access to your favorite sites and content across all your devices with the customizable Home Page.

Here’s a walkthrough of the product from its project manager at Yahoo!:

As we reported earlier this week, Google’s Chrome jumped over Internet Explorer to take the #1 browser position. Many said that it was “too late’ for Google when it introduced Chrome, saying that Firefox was on a clear path to take on Microsoft’s giant.

While the desktop version of Axis isn’t an actual browser, the fact that there are iOS versions of it that are standalone products makes it one. The big winner in this release could be Microsoft’s Bing, which provides the search results for Axis.

This is the biggest consumer product Yahoo!, which just fired its CEO, has launched in years. Is it too late for Yahoo!, or is the company just getting started?

Tell us what you think about Yahoo! Axis in the comments.

➤ Axis for iPhone and iPad

As you probably know, former PayPal president Scott Thompson was recently forced out of Yahoo, mere months after joining the beleaguered Internet company as chief executive officer. Now he’s also losing board seats left and right.

Thompson had misstated his credentials in regulatory filings and other places, claiming he had a computer science degree from Stonehill College in Massachusetts on his résumé, while in fact he only had an accounting degree.

He was swiftly removed from Yahoo’s board and management after word got out about the inaccuracies (creating a massive crisis for the company). For more context, read this The New York Times’ article on Thompson’s ‘undoing’.

Former Yahoo EVP Ross Levinsohn has since taken over as interim CEO.

Meanwhile, Thompson has taken yet another ‘career hit’, as he is no longer a board member of Splunk, a provider of ‘big data’ analysis software since last week.

Splunk released the following brief statement earlier this morning:

Scott Thompson Resigns From Board of Directors of Splunk Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – May 21, 2012) – Splunk® Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), the leading provider of software for real-time operational intelligence, today announced that Scott Thompson has resigned from its board of directors, effective May 18, 2012.

Splunk Chairman and CEO Godfrey Sullivan stated, “On behalf of the company’s management and board of directors, we thank Mr. Thompson for his contributions to the company. In regard to recent health issues, we wish Scott all the best for a fast and full recovery.”

The appointment of Thompson’s successor will be announced at a later date.

Thompson was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

Ironically, the Wall Street Journal just last week published an article entitled ‘After Yahoo, Thompson Still Has Splunk’. In the article, Splunk’s Director of Investor Relations, Ken Tinsley, was quoted as saying: “he’s a valued member of the board.”

Not anymore he isn’t.

Thompson also had a seat on the board of directors of another public tech company, F5 Networks, but also resigned from that position last week.

As we reported earlier, Scott Thompson has stepped down been ousted as CEO of Yahoo!. The reason was, as you may already be aware, a mixup flub of facts on his resume.

There have been six CEOs in the history of Yahoo! (plus a short interim-stint by Tim Morse that barely counted) and we thought that it would be appropriate to give you a quick reminder of those who came before current interim CEO Ross Levinsohn.

In 18 years as a company, having six CEOs isn’t the norm, and when you dig into some of the personalities that have held the position, you have to wonder what exactly is going on over there in purple land.

Here’s a quick summary of CEO highlights and lowlights. Ok, just the latter. Honestly, you couldn’t pay me enough to take this job.

March 1995 to March 7th, 2001 – Tim Koogle

Serving as the first CEO of Yahoo! is an impressive title to hold. Koogle came into the position with 20 years of business under his belt, having spent time at Motorola. While he served a nice chunk of time as the top dog, he went through his share of drama. Remember that time when he was sued by Holocaust survivors for “justifying the Holocaust by allowing the sale of Nazi memorabilia on Yahoo’s auction site”? Yikes.

April 17th, 2001 to June 18th 2007 – Terry Semel

Terry Semel took over from the only CEO that Yahoo! ever knew, and it was a changing of the guard that was very necessary in the eyes of the board and shareholders. He spent nearly 25 years at Warner Bros. and came in battle tested. Semel got to lead the company during some trying times, specifically surrounding personal data sharing with authorities in China. Remember when he took heat for sharing information with police that led to the arrest of a blogger? In retrospect, Semel said:

We continue to be pissed off and are sorry about it.

Ugh. Oh, and it’s also rumored that Semel completely flubbed a potential purchase of Google. Facebook too.

In 2007, Yahoo’s board told its shareholders that Semel was doing a wonderful job. One week later he was ousted.

June 18th, 2007 to November 17th, 2008 – Jerry Yang

When Jerry Yang was brought in, many thought that Yahoo! would be able to turn around its previous misfortunes. Since Yang was one of its co-founders, surely he could come in and right the ship. I mean, Yahoo’s original name was “Jerry and Dave’s Guide to the World Wide Web” so surely he had some more tricks up his sleeve, right? Wrong. Yahoo’s stock tanked under Yang and he turned down Microsoft’s acquisition offers multiple times.

Here’s what Yang said after Microsoft’s offer of over $44B:

The global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010. And we are moving quickly to take advantage of what we see as a unique window of time in the growth—and evolution—of this market.

Yeah, not “quickly” enough apparently.

When he stepped down as CEO, he kept his previous title of “Chief Yahoo!” (what a horrible title), but eventually left the company completely.

January 13th, 2009 to September 6th, 2011 – Carol Bartz

Oh, Carol Bartz. What can I say about her that you don’t already know? A polarizing figure, coming off of being the CEO of Autodesk, came in to “kick some butt”. If “kick some butt” meant “record number of layoffs”, then Bartz definitely kicked some butt.

Instead of selling the company to Microsoft, Bartz helped strike a search deal with Microsoft that helped to kickstart Bing. But let’s be serious, Bartz was interesting because she cursed like a drunken sailor.

Remember when she told Michael Arrington (then at TechCrunch) to “fuck off”? Just in case you didn’t, here’s the video:

Oh, and Bartz was fired over the phone. Here’s her “goodbye” email to Yahoo! employees, sent from her iPad:

To all,
I am very sad to tell you that I’ve just been fired over the phone by Yahoo’s Chairman of the Board. It has been my pleasure to work with all of you and I wish you only the best going forward.
Carol
Sent from my iPad

January 2012 to May 13th, 2012 – Scott Thompson

This was a hire that really led people to believe that Yahoo! meant business about turning around its previous misfortunes. Scott Thompson served as President at PayPal and ran its online payment division and came in with encouraging quotes like:

Clearly, speed is important but we will attack both the opportunity ahead and the competitive challenges with an appropriate balance of urgency and thoughtfulness. I cannot wait to get started.

Get started he did and get started he didn’t even get a chance to do. The only real work that Thompson got to partake in were the layoffs of roughly 14% of its workforce, or about 2,000 people. Here’s what Thompson had to say about them:

Change is never easy. But the time has come to move Yahoo! forward aggressively with increased focus and accountability. Our values have always been about treating all Yahoos with dignity and respect, and today is a day to embrace those values.

If you ask me, Yahoo! makes change look really easy.

After five months as CEO, his educational background came into question. You see, Thompson’s bio mentioned a computer science degree from Stone Hill College. Only problem is, when Thompson attended Stone Hill College there was no computer science degree offered. Oops.

May 13th 2012 to Present – Ross Levinsohn (Interim)

Immediately after giving Scott Thompson the boot, the company named Ross Levinsohn as interim CEO. Previously, Levinsohn held the “EVP of “Americas” at Yahoo!” post. Prior to that, he was President at Fox Interactive, the Internet arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

His crowning achievement at Fox Interactive? Leading the charge to buy Myspace for over $500M.

Oh boy, this can’t turn out well.

Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson is set to leave the company, the New York Times’ DealBook reports. According to the site, his departure could be announced as early as tomorrow, while the company’s global head of media Ross Levinsohn will replace him on an interim basis.

Update: Yahoo has confirmed the news in a press release.

As you may remember, Thompson was in the middle of a controversy over his inaccurate bio and academic credentials. While the story only emerged two weeks ago, Yahoo’s CEO has been in turmoil since then, with the company’s board reviewing his situation. Earlier this week, the company announced that it had formed a special committee to conduct a thorough review of the case.

In other words, Thompson’s fate wouldn’t come as a surprise; not only because his public resume was incorrect, but also because of his poor crisis management, as he failed to properly apologize or fully explain what happened.

According to AllThingsD, Yahoo’s board is also closing in on a settlement with Third Point’s Daniel Loeb, who had unveiled this story. As part of the agreement, which still has to be confirmed, the activist shareholder and hedge fund manager could get three board seats.

While this could have a strong impact on the company, it remains to be seen whether it could pull the troubled Internet giant out of its woes. Scott Thompson only joined as Yahoo’s CEO last January, three months after his predecessor Carol Bartz was fired.

We have reached out to Yahoo for comment and will update this post if we hear back from the company.

UPDATE: According to CNBC, Yahoo has now confirmed the move:

ALERT: Yahoo! names Fred Amoroso Chairman & appoints Ross Levinsohn Interim CEO; Board announces settlement with Third Point LLC.

— CNBC (@CNBC) May 13, 2012

We told you a few days ago about Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson and his lying inaccurate bio and academic credentials.

The company is taking the next steps to look into the matter, and is moving slower than molasses in the process. Today, Yahoo! announced a “special committee” to review its CEO’s academic credentials.

Here’s what Yahoo! had to say in the press release today:

The Board of Directors of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced that it has formed a special committee to conduct a thorough review of CEO Scott Thompson’s academic credentials, as well as the facts and circumstances related to the review and disclosure of those credentials in connection with Thompson’s appointment as CEO.

The special committee is chaired by Alfred Amoroso, an independent director who joined the Board in February of this year. The other members of the special committee are John Hayes and Thomas McInerney, independent directors who joined the Board in April of this year.

The special committee has retained as its independent counsel Terry Bird of the law firm Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks and Licenberg in Los Angeles. His firm has been recognized as one of the most respected specialty litigation firms in the country, focusing on litigation and internal investigations. Mr. Bird is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, and has also served on the President’s Judicial Advisory Committee for the Central District of California.

The special committee and the entire Board appreciate the urgency of the situation and the special committee will therefore conduct the review in an independent, thorough and expeditious manner. The Board intends to make the appropriate disclosures to shareholders promptly upon completion of the review.

The matter at hand is whether Thompson lied had the degree that he said he did in his bio, which has followed him since his days at PayPal.

Thompson’s bio states that he has a computer science degree from Stone Hill College, with the only problem being that the college didn’t offer such a degree when he attended.

I have an idea, instead of creating a committee to discuss a previous committee’s thoughts on a situation that is so obviously ridiculous, focus on making great products.

Hedge fund and activist Yahoo shareholder Third Point (which is in the middle of a proxy fight with the beleaguered Internet firm) recently set up a blog called ‘Value Yahoo’ that basically chronicles everything that is wrong with the online giant.

Yahoo, which has fallen from grace after a series of layoffs, a stock price nosedive, executive departures, restructuring efforts, failed attempts at reinvigorating its core businesses, a staggering inability to innovate and its recent engagement in a patent war against Facebook, is taking a lot of heat from Third Point indeed.

The hedge fund’s latest ammunition is an infographic that has admittedly done the rounds last week, but you may have missed it and that would be a shame.

Behold The Incredible Shrinking Yahoo infographic, made by HighTable.com:

(The chart on revenues is the most telling if you ask me)

As we reported earlier today, Yahoo has added two more patent claims to its case against Facebook.

A Facebook spokesperson gave us the following comment regarding Yahoo’s latest move:

We remain perplexed by Yahoo’s erratic actions. We disagree with these latest claims and we will continue to defend ourselves vigorously.

Clearly, as I noted previously, this is turning into a war of epic proportions, and neither company is standing down. With this latest comment from Facebook, it’s clear that the company is shocked by the actions that Yahoo has presented them with.

Of course, Facebook came back with its own patent claims, which Yahoo referred to today as “not in good faith”, since the patents themselves were purchased by Facebook from other entities.

The cases themselves are barely underway, and it seems like the back and forth could seemingly go on forever. To me, it appears as if Yahoo is trying to disrupt Facebook’s march to going public.

The two patents that Yahoo added to its case against Facebook today have to do with a “System and Method to Determine the Validity of and Interaction on a Network” and a “System and Method Allowing Advertisers to Manage Search Listings in Pay for Placement Search System Using Grouping”.

Sounds pretty vague to me.