This week Google Chrome overtook Internet Explorer (IE) to become the world's most-used browser.
This is not the only update in browser wars, a nice change from discussing tablet wars.
On Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Yahoo! released Axis, a tool that can be used as a stand-alone device app on mobile devices like the iPad. Users may also use Axis as an add-on to desktops for Firefox, IE, Google Chrome and Safari. Axis in not currently available for Android.
Yahoo! hopes Axis turns the searching and browsing experience into one. However, the company encountered a problem with the launch. On Friday, May 25, 2012, the company re-leased Axis with a fix to the Chrome extension by omitting the key. The company accidentally included a private PGP key that digitally signs the code. Because of that, any user could confirm the legitimacy of the source and write an app that said it came from Yahoo. In fact, that is what Nik Cubrilovic, an Australian researcher, did. He also discovered the error. He cloned the extension, resigned it with the key and installed it into Chrome.
Fixes Made
Yahoo! took quick action and users should be aware of the following:
- The re-leased version does not contain the private key.
- The company issued a new certificate to revoke the old one.
Yahoo! integrates some nice features into Axis, including thumbnail descriptions. However, for my laptop, I am staying with Firefox. Google Chrome and IE have not worked well for me and after Yahoo's release, I am not taking any chances until I purchase a new laptop.
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