Hot on the heels of the news that Internet Explorer has dipped below Chrome (in some circles at least*), Yahoo has announced they are launching… yes, their own browser Axis!

Initially this sounded like a very silly idea but as this CNET article explains, since the end of the original browser wars building and promoting browsers has been all about search revenue – something that Yahoo clearly needs to address in a novel way to begin scaling the seemingly unsurmountable Google mountain.

Furthermore, the current fragmentation of the browser market across competing products and the ever diversifying mobile and tablet platforms has considerably reduced the barrier to entry in the browser market. As I’ve been wondering lately and CNet remind us, it’s only a matter of time before Apple get told off for hard-wiring Safari into iPhones and iPads in the same way that began Internet Explorer’s demise from its impenetrable monopolistic advantage as the OEM PC defacto browser (and also Yahoo’s co-distributed browser to 80 million subscribers per year).

After this happens there could be whole a new market for a beautiful, user-friendly, fun-to-use mobile browser with an engaging, exploratory search method. Perhaps Axis will fit this bill – but will it be able to turn the tables on Google and Firefox’s apparent commitment to corner the mobile browser market?

One thing’s certain. Poor old I.E.’s just lost another friend.