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Yandex – The Google of Russia Simplifying the Lives of the Russians

Founder, Google, start-up, Story, Tech Story / By

In this era of the Internet, the importance of search engines cannot be adequately described. From finding your favourite restaurants, booking flight tickets to forecasting weather, its uses are infinite. Google, AOL, Bing, Yandex, Baidu (in China), and many more, flock the internet.

For the uninitiated, Yandex is the Google of Russian Internet or Ru-net. It is a search engine providing services such as Yandex Mail, Search, News, Video, Taxi, Traffic, Maps, etc., to the people of Russia.

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Image Source: businesschief.com

Founding Yandex

It all started when two young boys, Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich, both computer nerds, decided to make money by selling computers in the 1980s. Volozh and Segalovich, together, have co-founded several IT companies such as InfiNet Wireless, Comptek International, and Yandex is also one of them. The word “Yandex” has been derived from “Yet another Index”, indicating it to be one of the numerous search engines present at that time.

The first phase of Yandex’s success started with the Advertisement phase. The engine started displaying contextual advertisements. It pioneered the internet’s advertisement industry by boldly changing the dynamics. The majority of the company’s revenue came from such advertisements. They concentrated a large part of their resources on this venture, and it turned out to be a stroke of genius.

The second phase came soon in the year 2000, when the company announced the launch of several services such as Mail, News, Bookmarks. These services allowed people to access a unified interface for all their queries. The services were backed by unique marketing strategies, creating a lasting imprint on the minds of the Russian people.

The 2000s was a crucial period, including the Internet Revolution. The businesses had numerous growth opportunities, and the Internet had become a stepping stone for various corporations to expand their horizons. It was like a ‘rainbow on an already sunny day.’ The dependency on the Internet facilities was increasing. The year 2005 saw the upsurge in Yandex users, numerically 3 million. In 2009, the number reached 18 million users.

Apart from services, this tech giant also ventured in the field of education. Yandex started the school of Data Analytics in 2007 to support technology friendly academics, and “Yandex.Start” was launched to work with startups on newer projects. In 2014, it ventured with Moscow School of Economics to open a computer science facility. In 2016, It rolled out “Yandex.Lyceum” to teach coding and programming to young teenagers. It also provided CERN with computing resources. Yandex, a believer in Artificial Intelligence, has released “Alice” on the lines of Amazon’s Echo and Google Home.

The company has also been regularly updating its platforms. It recently launched Catboost, a new algorithm replacing the older MatrixNet. It is supposed to be faster and more precise. It released “Palekh”, a new search algorithm that uses neural networks to map information on the network.

The dynamics of Yandex’s success changed to good business deals from the quality substance. In 2011, Yandex offered its shares to the public. It raised north of 1 billion dollars. After the IPO, a larger resource pool was created. It partnered with Uber in multi-million dollar deals to share the taxi business. It also ventured into Turkey – providing Turkish people with its services.

Yandex had become a comprehensive search engine, touching every aspect of a person’s life. Timetables to Traffic, it had answers for everything. It concentrated keenly on search algorithms. Such ability must be attributed to the timely and efficient launch of its services. Another aspect of its success must be credited to its convenient linguistics. The ability to interpret local Russian language and provide accurate results was very well conceived. It overhauled the problems of people and provided holistic solutions. Such extensive and conscious effort towards improvement of technology services has certainly carved a niche in the minds of the people.

Yandex’s Driver-less Cars are Out Running on the Roads of Moscow

News, Product, Tech News / By

The Google of Russia, and the most used search engine of Russia, Yandex, is doing way beyond a search engine must do. The largest technology firm of Russia started its journey by setting up a search engine in the late 90s and by the end of 2018, it has spread its wings in other fields too. On Tuesday it announced the launch of a self-driving autonomous taxi service, that will soon run on the roads of Moscow.

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Image Source: hearstapps.com

Yandex launched the prototypes of the driverless cars last year, in the month of May, and had already announced Europe’s first autonomous taxi service, back in August this year. The self-driven cars, Waymo by Google, are already running in Silicon Valley, and a launch of such cars out of Silicon Valley is a big achievement for Yandex.

Yandex initially will have two types of vehicles, based on the driver-less technology, and will run in the 400-hectare region of Skolkovo, in the Innopolis technology park. The car will have fixed fares for particular destinations, and the user can choose the destinations through an app, on their smartphones.

The self-driven cars by Yandex have sensors, video cameras and lidar, that enables the cars to judge the distance from other cars and other obstacles, using lasers. The odometry, used in the car, calculates how much the tyres of the vehicle have moved, and in which direction. The vehicle is embedded with the technology, that can identify the traffic lights, road marking, and the road signs. The vehicle can also predict the next situation as according to the makers, no one follows all the rules properly, so the car must be intelligent enough, to plan and predict the next step, that must be executed to avoid any type of mishappening.

Although the car has been tested with all its features and is good to go, for now, there will be a human driver sitting on the other seat of the car, to take over the driving at the time of emergency. The driver will be removed soon from the car, and Yandex is planning to reach out to more places, in Russia, where it can impose those self-driven cars. It is also planning to make the technology compatible with different brands cars.