Yandex Launches Location Specific Search

Internet, October 12, 2009. Yandex releases a new, location-specific search platform, Arzamas, in 19 cities of Russia. Search results returned in response to location-specific user queries, are based on the user’s location.

When a user is searching for [tv repair], they are, most likely, want information about television repair shops in their city, not just anywhere. Yandex can understand such implications in user queries and will rank the search results using the ranking algorithm specific for a given location. Most often, it is the local, regional websites that provide the most relevant information to satisfy the user’s query. So, in answer to the query [legal services], users in Saint Petersburg will see lawyers providing legal services in this city, while people seeking legal help in Ekaterinburg will get a list of their local counselors.

Yandex identifies user’s location, as well as website’s location, automatically. Users can change their location or opt out of automatic location tracking in Yandex search settings. Webmasters can use the Yandex.Webmaster service to specify their website’s location.

“We first started experimenting with local search as far back as April,” says Ivan Naimushin, manager of the search quality at Yandex. “Our metrics and test results confirm that location-specific search increases relevance of search results, this is what makes us want to develop Arzamas even further”.

Web users in the Russian internet make more than 1.5bn searches on Yandex per month. Depending on location, from 15% to 30% of these queries require location-specific information.

To read more about location-specific search, please, visit http://company.yandex.ru/rules/regions.xml (in Russian).

Contact:
Media Relations
Vladimir Isaev, Ochir Mandzhikov
Phone: +7 495 739-7000
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com