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Comment by diyorgasms | Hacker News Reader

Off topic, but I am curious. To any Russian readers, how does Yandex hold up to Google for Russian users? Does it provide an experience better than Google in some way? Do people use it simply because it is domestic? Is it similar to Baidu in that it is a means of controlling the flow of information?

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As far as i know Google beats Yandex in search (readed about this here http://habrahabr.ru/post/173351/). But Yandex got more detailed maps (google missed some objects / buildings). Yandex got Taxi app, public transport app, navigator, metrika (google analytics copy) and etc, etc, etc. For me as developer - yandex provides much better api documentation and examples.

But I can't understand - how can they force monopoly protest, being monopolists itself? Example - Only Yandex.Transport got API for public data (bus stops, Position Tracking) in Moscow. I am sure, that Google can protest them back. How Yandex had the nerve for this? Nothing personal, business only?

P.S. All above is about Russia context. In USA I don't know which maps are more detailed.

NB: Once we're talking:

All Yandex services: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev...

All Google services: http://www.google.com/about/products/

Yandex.Transport bought an access to API for positioning, but it's not exclusive. Everyone, including you can buy this access too, it's not very expensive.

So, where I can get those API? Can you get me link or something?

>But I can't understand - how can they force monopoly protest, being monopolists itself?

Putin.

"Only Yandex.Transport got API for public data (bus stops, Position Tracking) in Moscow"

Moscow officials state that it is not the case, they're not limiting their APIs to Yandex only. Yandex is merely the first one to gain access.

First of all, yandex is a very old search engine (launched in 1997). For a very long time yandex was way better for search queries in Russian which was obviously a deal breaker for domestic users. Like google and yahoo, they have a full suite of internet services (mail, search, news, virtual currency, etc), so you wouldn't gain much by switching.

Yandex also possesses some unique domestic services that google doesn't have (market, taxi, traffic jams).

It does give better results when it comes to digging stuff up. If you take time factor into the account, it often falls behind on finding relevant news. To sum up, Yandex is a very good search engine for people who only search in Russian within Russia.

Yandex Search is couple of years older than Google, and specializes in Russian market from the beginning. It provided much more relevant results for quite a few years.

Some services mirror Google's while being tailored to Russia/CIS audience: mail, yandex.direct=adwords, chrome-based yandex browser, maps, news, social stuff, cloud storage. Some services, like yandex market or rabota (job search), have no Google counterparts.

Also, their support is more responsive. So no, it's nothing like Baidu and more like Intel vs AMD.

Yandex.Market kinda corresponds to Google Shopping. http://www.google.com/shopping Curiously enough, Google doesn't provide Shopping in Russia: there's no 'Shopping' tab when searching through google.ru, and when browsing via Russian IP, google.com does redirect through google.ru.

While we are on AdWords/Yandex.Direct, is there any alternative to Wordstat from Google? http://wordstat.yandex.com/#!/?words=iPhone

You can switch by clicking a link at the bottom, "Use Google.com".

As for shopping, interestingly, it works here: "Online stores shipping to Moscow, Russia", but it's quite simplistic. Yandex.Market is more like Amazon if you look at its parametric search and filters.

I can switch, but for that I need to go explicitly to goole.com (it redirects to .ru), click "Use Google.com" and search. As opposed to searching right from the browser address bar.

Shopping works if you use google.com, but if you use google.ru - it isn't there.

Yandex.Market has a great API that lets shops integrate with it. Some shops even manage to exist without having their own websites. They just sell through Yandex.Market. Google Shopping does not even come close.

Going by the description, Wordstat seems similar to Google Trends. And AdWords has several keyword research tools.

Yandex market is awesome. It has a very detailed database of products, and lets you filter them by tons of tech specs and actually explains what they are. I use it all the time to find products in categories that I don't know much about. Amazon, Google shopping or whatever don't even come close.

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