Search Engine Journal

Yandex Russian Search Engine - Spotlight #4

For the forth installment of Spotlight of 500 Search Engines, Konstantin Minaton of SeoText.ru helped Search Engine Journal take our series overseas to Mother Russia to look into Yandex. Yandex is the largest search engine / portal on the Russian Internet (Runet) according to research studies conducted by Gallup Media. Additionally, Yandex accounts for over 50% of all referrals to Russian web sites from Russian search engines.

Konstantin added that Google has its “prestige” in Russia, but is not nearly as popular among the people as Yandex its closest competition, Rambler.

Like the modern search engines of Google, Yahoo, and Ask; Yandex is a search portal - offering services from comparison shopping search, to news, RSS aggregation, and a Paypal type pay system called Yandex.Money. Additionally, like Yahoo and Google, Yandex also offers its own sponsored search ad interface - Yandex.Direct.

Here is a list of the variety of services Yandex offers: search engine, directory of sites by themes, comparison shopping system, images search, latest news and weather, TV program, RSS search, Russian cities and Europe maps, The Open Internet Search Cup - cup competition in web search, free mail, Spam protection system, free web hosting (without such advantages like PHP, Perl or MySQL), Yandex.Lenta – an RSS on-line aggregator (read, organize, search and store any RSS feed), Yandex.Money – Internet pay system (only rubles), Yandex.Direct – text ads in search results, on-line encyclopedia, games, WiFi network and Afisha – what to do in your rest-time (restaurants, clubs, cinema, theatres etc.). Given Yandex’s vast offering of services along with WiFi, RSS Search, and a pay system; sounds like its a model for Google and Yahoo to follow in terms of network building.

And hey Greg Sterling, check this out! Yandex adds that it is taking local search beyond the browser and into local establishments “Yandex is interested in increasing the depth and intensity of internet use in Russia. Yandex.WiFi became the largest WiFi network (of free wireless internet access hot spots) in Russia. There are currently over 145 restaurants, cafes, clubs and other service providing organizations in Yandex.WiFi network. The Open Internet Search Cup, created and developed by Yandex, is held annually and helps users appreciate internet as a unique and gigantic informational system.” Pretty cool, integrated local search on the brick and mortar front, something Yahoo is getting into with its user reviews and mapping system.

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Spotlight of 500 Search Engines - Search Engine Journal is reviewing 500 search engines this year to help share the spotlight that the larger engines enjoy. If you represent a search engine or know of one that should be reviewed, email us with search engines you would like to see in the Spotlight of 500 Search Engines. Please mail us the search engine URL, description, your contact information, and any traits or offerings which make the search engine special. With a goal of 500 search engines to review in one year, we’ll need all the help we can get.