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Yandex, the leading Russian search engine, has purchased WebVisor technology. The acquisition is a result of the “open days for startups”, a Yandex initiative under the Yandex.Start program.

Russia's leading search engine Yandex has developed and launched a new search technology, Spectrum. It allows to infer implicit queries and return matching search results. So, a user's search query [beethoven] retrieves both the composer's biography and his music along with the film Beethoven.

Yandex has launched property search in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Now users looking for an apartment to rent or a house to buy can see the number of properties available in their area and then go to realty.yandex.ru to specify their search: rent a two-room apartment in central Moscow or buy a one-room apartment on Vasilyevsky Island.

Yandex becomes the first search engine to develop a partnership with the most popular Russian social network VKontakte. The networking website now pushes public information in its users’ profiles to the search engine’s index in real time. This information is now available on yandex.ru or on Yandex’s blog search.

Yandex, Russia’s largest search engine, and Facebook have signed a partnership agreement whereby Yandex will integrate information from the social network on its website.

Yandex helps users to find a job. Job seekers can now see the information about employment opportunities in their area right in Yandex’s search results. Job links returned in response to users’ queries include salary range for a desired position or the number of vacancies from a chosen employer.

Yandex invites users to travel to Crimea. Yandex.Maps has released panoramic views of a couple of dozen cities and resort towns in Crimea, including Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta, Alushta and Gurzuf.

Yandex expands opportunities for streaming music from its catalog. In addition to single tracks previously available for streaming on yandex.ru, users can now find music on albums and entire discographies available in the company’s music catalog. So, simply typing the name of a song in the search box on yandex.ru will play this song right in the search results. Similarly, the name of an album entered in the search box will return a player with the first three tracks from this album, while the name of an artist or a band will retrieve three of their most popular compositions.

Yandex search at www.yandex.com now retrieves images and videos in addition to text documents in response to search queries. So, typing [Rothko] in the search box on yandex.com returns not only the information about the artist, but also images of his pictures.

Yandex helps users find the best banking product. Someone looking for lending or saving options available at local banks can now see this information right in Yandex’ search results. Yandex will also offer advice on the loan rates for a used car or tell how to get a mortgage without indemnity guarantee.

Yandex rolled out a new map of Ukraine. The new map is now available in Russian and Ukrainian and features a route planning function covering the entire country.

Yandex.Money offers a new handy payment method for products or services purchased from any online retailer accepting credit or debit cards. The Yandex.Money Prepaid MasterCard can be used at web shops or online services all over the world, including Amazon, PayPal and eBay.

Yandex launches a new version of its search engine ‘Poltava’ for the Ukrainian web users. The ‘Poltava’ release based on Yandex’s proprietary MatrixNet technology allows to deliver results with local resources ranking higher than other websites for the user’s location-specific queries.

Starting today, MTS clients in all regions of Russia can use Yandex.Maps installed on their mobile devices for free. MTS has joined Yandex’s program for mobile providers, which aims to give mobile users access to the Yandex.Maps application without paying for data usage.

Yandex rolled out a new version of Yandex.Mail for open beta testing. The key implemented feature is enhanced performance. The new Yandex.Mail instantly responds to user’s input. The current version can be upgraded to the new release using the account settings.

Yandex users can now travel to the seaside in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai in the blink of an eye. Yandex.Maps offers panoramic images of resort towns on the coast of the Black Sea from Anapa to Sochi including small villages and the road along the shoreline.

Yandex has developed and implemented a new search technology that allows users to find the latest information minutes after it appears online.

Yandex has completed the acquisition deal with GIS Technologies, which since 2008 provides data for one of the company’s key services, Yandex.Maps.

Web users in Tatarstan can now talk to Yandex in the Tatar language. Yandex can find answers to users’ questions in Tatar. Its front page, the search results pages and the user interface of the Yandex.Mail service are now available in both official languages, Tatar and Russian.

Yandex launches a partnership program for mobile service providers to allow their clients to use the Yandex.Maps application for free. MegaFon, the first company to join the program, has already made their customers in Moscow, Moscow Region, Central Federal Region, Urals, Caucasus, Siberia and Far East enjoy all features of Yandex.Maps on their mobiles free of charge.

Yandex and VKontakte agreement gives web users and developers the opportunity to use the maps provided by Russia’s largest internet resource on the country’s leading social networking website.

Everyone who failed to get to the Football World Cup in South Africa can now go to Yandex and watch the main football events closely at football2010.yandex.ru and its mobile version m.football2010.yandex.ru.

Starting from today, Yandex.Money users can easily top-up their e-wallets using a banking card of any Russian bank. Now all operations within Yandex.Money payment system can be done online, without having to leave your chair.

Yandex.Maps has added more than 70 new cities in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus to its collection of satellite images. Now, using People’s Map service, people in, say, Vyborg, Petrozavodsk or Chita, can draw a map right over a detailed satellite image of their city or just see what their city looks like from space.

Yandex opens a Sales Office in Novosibirsk. Advertisers in Siberian Federal District now have a local sales branch in their region to place their ads on Yandex. The new regional office in Novosibirsk will concentrate on promoting Yandex’s advertising products to help Siberian advertisers make the most of them.

Yandex offers its users an option of limiting their search only to foreign websites. To search in English or other Latin alphabet-based languages on yandex.ru, users can enable the global search filter and see results exclusively from the foreign web resources. The global search is also available at the company’s experimental www.yandex.com launched for testing new search algorithms.

Yandex partners with Nadezhnye Programmy unitary enterprise to launch exclusive Partner Support Center TUT.BY in Belarus. Now, Belarusian websites participating in the Yandex Advertising Network can receive their revenue from advertising in Belarusian rubles.

Yandex.Maps rolled out panoramic views for Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Chelyabinsk. The new cities have expanded the list of city maps with panoramic views, which already includes Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Kiev.

Yandex.Metrica web statistics tool launches a link mapping feature. It allows users to see which links on their site attract visitors’ attention and which ones remain unnoticed. All links on a page equipped with Yandex.Metrica are colour-coded based on their popularity.

Yandex launches web portal yandex.by. Now Belarusian web users have a Yandex of their own to find answers to their questions.

Yandex unveils a new front page design. The new layout offers more space for personalization – users can add more widgets with all other gadgets grouped for a faster and easier access.

Yandex gives its users an opportunity to collaborate on People’s Map. Now, anyone can create and maintain a map of their hometown or any other familiar place.

Yandex.Maps rolled out “Panoramic views” of streets in Kiev. Now, web users have an opportunity to armchair travel to the banks of the Dnieper River, see the House with Chimeras or take a walk along Kreschatik.

Yandex has launched a proprietary virus detection technology based on user behavior. This anti-virus solution checks web pages for the latest malware and warns search users about potential threats.

Now Yandex users can find the closest bank, shoe repair shop or any other business or organization without even providing their current location. To use this feature, all they need to do is download the new Yandex.Bar on their Wi-Fi enabled PC or laptop and it will automatically locate the user and will send this information to Yandex search.

Yandex invites all sports enthusiasts to follow the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver online. Web users can view regularly updated medal standings right on Yandex’s front page, while to check on the current Olympic events in real time, they can go to olymp2010.yandex.ru.

Yandex has made it possible for companies and organizations to add or edit their contact details and other information to the text displayed next to the link to their website in the search results. Using the Yandex.Webmaster service, a company or a business can now include its address and telephone number in the company description in search results, and provide more information to be shown on a company’s business card on Yandex.Maps.

Saint Petersburg, one of the most beautiful cities of the world, now has panoramic views of its streets on Yandex.Maps. Now web users can take a tour around the city to see the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the famed Nevsky Prospekt or Saint Isaac's Cathedral. Virtual travelers can also visit neighboring Petergof, Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Kronstadt, Vyborg or Gatchina.

Yandex announced preliminary unaudited results for 2009. Ruble revenue grew 14% compared to 2008 and reached 8.7 billion rubles ($278 million). As before, contextual ads accounted for 86% of the Company’s revenues. Display ads comprised 11%.