Yandex offers ‘foreign-only’ search results
May 25th, 2010
Russian search giant Yandex last week announced that users can now see results from foreign sites only.
As with most local search engines, Yandex prefers locally hosted websites in the Russian language. Foreign websites are rarely shown in the first page rankings, and Yandex have stated that Russian web users prefer sites locally relevant and in Cyrillic script.
However, some users may be looking for something which is particular to another country, or which another country may be able to provide better information on, for example, if a Russian were searching for ‘hotels in London’, a UK website on holiday accommodation is more likely to be of use.
Now, when the global search filter is enabled, yandex.ru will display only the results from other countries. Latin script based enquiries account for 12-15% of all searches on Yandex, but Yandex also understand that just because people may be searching in English (for example) this may not mean they are after an English website. If someone were to search for the term ‘Apple iPhone’, as the gadget is known universally, they may still be looking for a site which sells it in Russia. Therefore, Yandex allows users to choose whether to view local search results or foreign results.
Whether or not Yandex are hoping to take on Google with their global search options is debatable, however the move certainly provides Russian web users with more choice when searching.
By Anna Pearce.
