yandex

Yandex powers Apple's Maps in Russia, report says

Although Google has been kicked out of iOS 6, at least one of its competitors has actually been invited to the platform.

Yandex, Russia's Google equivalent, is powering aspects of Apple's iOS 6 mapping feature, Maps, TechCrunch is reporting today, citing sources. According to the blog, when users search for details in Maps, Yandex's application programming interface built into the feature will offer up information on local restaurants, shops, and other locales.

The Yandex integration was discovered in the Gold Master version of Russia's iOS 6. AppleInsider in Russia was first to discover the feature.

Apple introduced its new Maps in iOS 6. … Read more

Google to become default search choice in Russian Firefox

When the next version of Firefox hits the streets in Russia, Google -- and not Russia's own Yandex -- will be the default search engine.

That's according to The Next Web, which speculates that though Yandex enjoys a 60 percent share of Russia's search market compared with Google's approximately 26.5 percent, Google may be leveraging its support of Firefox maker Mozilla to convince the company to give it top billing in Firefox version 14.

Google and Firefox struck a three-year deal in December that set Google as the default Firefox search engine outside Russia. Financial … Read more

Yandex cloud service offers 10GB of storage for free

A new Web site is offering 10GB of online storage for free. The catch? It's only in Russian...at least for now.

Launching today as a beta version, Yandex.Disk (English translation) is the latest in a growing lineup of cloud storage sites, letting people store files online and access them from computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Files stored locally and online can be synchronized among multiple devices to ensure that the versions stay consistent. So the same document you save on your desktop PC can be accessed and edited on your mobile device. You can view and launch your … Read more

Yandex IPO strong in opening; shares down on day 2

After a strong debut on the Nasdaq yesterday, Russia's most popular search engine, Yandex, is seeing its shares slide in its second day of trading.

Yesterday, Yandex, which attracted 38.3 million unique users in March and secured 64 percent of all Russian search traffic, priced its initial public offering at $25 per share. Almost immediately, the company's shares soared, and continued to rise throughout the day. At the close of trading yesterday, Yandex shares settled at $37.75 after reaching a high of more than $42.

The company's success in its first day of trading helped … Read more

Yandex search: Revenue up 43 percent in '10

Yandex, the Russian search engine that along with China's Baidu is demonstrating Google doesn't have a total lock on search, reported that its 2010 revenue increased 43 percent year over year to 12.5 billion rubles, or about $420 million.

The company made 88 percent of its 2010 revenue from contextual ads, which by its definition include those shown next to search results, the company said yesterday. The company has more than 180,000 advertisers.

The revenue figures exclude commissions paid to partners, the company said. Yandex, a privately held company, didn't release information about its profitability. … Read more

Firefox in Russia dumps Google for Yandex

Russian-language Firefox users will see a new default search provider soon: Google rival Yandex.

Mozilla currently has Google set to be the default search engine in Russian Firefox, but it concluded that Yandex was the better choice, according to a blog post by Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson on Friday.

"Over the past few months, we have listened to feedback, talked with our localizers, studied the trends of our Firefox Yandex builds, and reviewed the Yandex user experience. All this activity led us to the conclusion that our Russian users really wanted direct access to the Yandex search services … Read more

Russian search company Yandex acquires ad agency

Russia's largest search site, Yandex, announced today that it acquired Mediaselling, an online display ad agency, for an undisclosed amount in an attempt to bolster its advertising initiatives and establish itself as Google and others try to create a foothold in the country.

Yandex, which recently postponed (Google Translation warning) its plans for an IPO, will allow Mediaselling to continue to operate as an independent entity for a short while, but the advertising firm will eventually become a part of Yandex, according to Mediaselling CEO Lev Gleyzer.

"I have good news," Gleyzer wrote in a blog post. &… Read more

Ex-Yahoo search chief to lead Yandex lab

Vish Makhijani, until this week Yahoo's senior vice president in charge of search, now is leading a San Francisco Bay Area lab of Russian search engine and portal site Yandex.

Makhijani will be president and chief executive of Yandex Labs, the company said Friday.

"Vish and his group at Yandex Labs will help to develop and improve Yandex's core technology capabilities including the quality of algorithmic search for the Russian audience," said Arkady Volozh, CEO of parent company Yandex. "We did not hesitate to go the extra mile to find this rare talent." (Though … Read more

Report: Russian search site plans IPO

Yandex, a Russian search engine, plans to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion in an initial public offering this fall, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The funding is based on an overall valuation of about $5 billion, according to an unnamed source. Reuters also cited Russian media reports that Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Renaissance Capital are managing the IPO on Nasdaq.

Yandex has about 8 million unique users per day, the company said. Its co-founders are Chief Executive Arkady Volozh and Chief Technology Officer Ilya Segalovich. The company's technology began as a linguistics project at the Russian Academy of … Read more