History of Yandex

Yandex released a browser of its own design. This was an important event for the company, since a browser is the most important thing needed to navigate the web. The Russian version came out first, followed by versions for Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey.

Yandex.Search learnt how to take individual users’ personal interests into account. It did this by using its knowledge about individuals — what they usually ask about, which sites they visit, whether they need answers in English. Yandex started considering all this when choosing prompts and formulating search results. The more a person uses search, the more relevant are the answers it gives.

Yandex introduced Real Time Bidding — a technology by which ad impressions are auctioned. In these auctions, the sellers are web sites offering ad space, and the buyers are ad placement services representing advertisers’ interests. Ad impressions are auctioned in the mere milliseconds it takes for a user to open a webpage.

Yandex opened its cloud storage service Yandex.Disk. As cloud storage services should, it is accessible on different kinds of devices — desktop computers, notebooks, smartphones. Users receive 10 GB of data storage space for free, and can fill it with whatever they like: photos, texts, music, video.
Another event of the year was the release of Yandex.Navigator. The application contains regularly updated maps of hundreds of cities, with navigation considering traffic conditions, plus voice support — all completely free of charge. The app would soon become a regular fixture on taxi drivers’ dashboards.
In general it was a strong year in terms of mobile products. Besides Yandex.Navigator, the company also released the apps Yandex.Music, Yandex.Translate, Yandex.Direct and the system shell Yandex.Shell.