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>> They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics FYI, they are Russian subject that follows ALL their censorship laws (and oh boy

>> They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics FYI, they are Russian subject that follows ALL their censorship laws (and oh boy do they have a lot of it). >> probably to perhaps to prevent western competitors from using them The irony here. All yandex products are exact copies of western, adjusted to local market.

cpursley 4y ago
Actually they're not, some of the Yandex products are actually better and pretty innovative (ignoring the political stuff). Maps and Go are especially good. Ditto with Russian banking apps, they put American bank apps to shame.
- jhgb 4y ago
  Wait, so you're saying it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it?
  - cpursley 4y ago
    I could have worded that better. I just mean ignoring the general political situation in Russia, Yandex makes some really good products.
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    > it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it I don't think you've lived in Russia if you need to ask that question. Breaking the law and getting away with it is a way of life in Russia, that goes for all institutions and social strata
    - jhgb 4y ago
      Breaking random laws? Sure. Breaking laws specifically made to enable central government control of independent media? Uh, how do you do that? Have you not noticed for how minor things regarding freedom of expression have been Russian people getting into jail recently?
      - Barrin92 4y ago
        >Uh, how do you do that? By being on the internet. Russia has always been good at literally hitting you with a physical club if you're crazy enough to take a sign to the streets, but the Russian state doesn't understand the internet, or really anything that's sort of underground or intangible. There's a reason the country is probably the world's largest place for all things piracy related, scihub and so on. It's not just laxer IP laws, it's also that tech in particular has always skirted all kinds of regulation freely, it's why the country has a relatively healthy tech industry despite at times suffocating regulation. The prevalence of cybercrime in the country is another example of it. Being censorious doesn't make you competent. Even Telegram which was at some point supposedly blocked was still used by everyone, including funnily enough the foreign ministry itself. These things never really work in Russia.(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-telegram-ban-idUSKBN23P2FT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-telegram-ban-idUSK...)
- orbital-decay 4y ago
  >some of the Yandex products are actually better and pretty innovative (ignoring the political stuff). Maps and Go are especially good. Yeah, the same Yandex Maps that stopped showing state borders recently, as they are now "more focused on natural objects", in their words.
  - shakow 4y ago
    At the same time, from a consumer perspective, this sacrifice to internal political pressures won't hamper your usage of the product. It's not like if international borders were the most important annotation on a map for everyday use. Edit: in fact, I just checked, yandex maps still shows state borders.
    - orbital-decay 4y ago
      It doesn't distinguish state and region borders anymore, like it did before. No borders on the overview map either. Just zoomed into a random place on the map, and I can tell where Turkey ends and Bulgaria begins only because the city names are different.
      - shakow 4y ago
        Ah ok, I see what you mean. I didn't see it as I was looking at France. It's weird, because at large scale there are no borders, at medium scale there is a weird mix of national and local borders (Western EU countries have state-level borders, RU/BY/UA/US/CN have local borders, ...). And to take your example, I have to zoom quite close for BG/TR to switch from state-wide to local borders.

cpursley 4y ago

Actually they're not, some of the Yandex products are actually better and pretty innovative (ignoring the political stuff). Maps and Go are especially good. Ditto with Russian banking apps, they put American bank apps to shame.

jhgb 4y ago
Wait, so you're saying it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it?
- cpursley 4y ago
  I could have worded that better. I just mean ignoring the general political situation in Russia, Yandex makes some really good products.
- Barrin92 4y ago
  > it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it I don't think you've lived in Russia if you need to ask that question. Breaking the law and getting away with it is a way of life in Russia, that goes for all institutions and social strata
  - jhgb 4y ago
    Breaking random laws? Sure. Breaking laws specifically made to enable central government control of independent media? Uh, how do you do that? Have you not noticed for how minor things regarding freedom of expression have been Russian people getting into jail recently?
    - Barrin92 4y ago
      >Uh, how do you do that? By being on the internet. Russia has always been good at literally hitting you with a physical club if you're crazy enough to take a sign to the streets, but the Russian state doesn't understand the internet, or really anything that's sort of underground or intangible. There's a reason the country is probably the world's largest place for all things piracy related, scihub and so on. It's not just laxer IP laws, it's also that tech in particular has always skirted all kinds of regulation freely, it's why the country has a relatively healthy tech industry despite at times suffocating regulation. The prevalence of cybercrime in the country is another example of it. Being censorious doesn't make you competent. Even Telegram which was at some point supposedly blocked was still used by everyone, including funnily enough the foreign ministry itself. These things never really work in Russia.(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-telegram-ban-idUSKBN23P2FT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-telegram-ban-idUSK...)
orbital-decay 4y ago
>some of the Yandex products are actually better and pretty innovative (ignoring the political stuff). Maps and Go are especially good. Yeah, the same Yandex Maps that stopped showing state borders recently, as they are now "more focused on natural objects", in their words.
- shakow 4y ago
  At the same time, from a consumer perspective, this sacrifice to internal political pressures won't hamper your usage of the product. It's not like if international borders were the most important annotation on a map for everyday use. Edit: in fact, I just checked, yandex maps still shows state borders.
  - orbital-decay 4y ago
    It doesn't distinguish state and region borders anymore, like it did before. No borders on the overview map either. Just zoomed into a random place on the map, and I can tell where Turkey ends and Bulgaria begins only because the city names are different.
    - shakow 4y ago
      Ah ok, I see what you mean. I didn't see it as I was looking at France. It's weird, because at large scale there are no borders, at medium scale there is a weird mix of national and local borders (Western EU countries have state-level borders, RU/BY/UA/US/CN have local borders, ...). And to take your example, I have to zoom quite close for BG/TR to switch from state-wide to local borders.