5 ms·

>(Russian Google) Are there people here who don't know Yandex? Genuinely curious, if you didn't know what it is I'd like to hear from you.

beezlebroxxxxxx 3y ago
You're over-estimating how many people actually "surf" the net. I'd wager most of HN knows Yandex, but you're average, non-tech industry, person in NA has essentially no need or situation when they would run into Yandex (aside from streaming, even then they probably aren't explicitly going to the yandex url). You would see the same case for a Chinese search engine. People in general spend a remarkable amount of time visiting the same 3-4 websites over and over and some apps.
- charcircuit 3y ago
  >but you're average, non-tech industry, person in NA has essentially no need or situation when they would run into Yandex They have the most popular reverse image search tool now that Google got rid of theirs
  - angra_mainyu 3y ago
    Yep, and surprisingly good too (I use it daily).
    - kristiandupont 3y ago
      What are those searches? I am curious because I've used reverse image search 3-4 times in my life. It's just not something I think of..
      - charcircuit 3y ago
        The most normal use case is finding the original, higher resolution version of an image.
        EasyMark 3y ago
        this is 90% of what I use it for as well. Sometimes I'll use it to track down a meme image as well
      - angra_mainyu 3y ago
        reverse image searching memes
wkat4242 3y ago
I know it but only because they didn't require phone confirmation for email accounts so it was great for sockpuppets. I've asked around here to my colleagues and none of them have ever heard of it. One of them asked if it's the same as baidu :)
- trompetenaccoun 3y ago
  Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. Not blaming the user for explaining, I just didn't understand why an explanation is needed on this site of all places. Like others have pointed out, Yandex isn't only used by Russians but around the world. They clearly have the best freely accessible reverse image search since Google has impaired theirs for whatever reason. But I guess I'm in a bit of a bubble assuming that everyone knows the company.
- throwaway167 3y ago
  Requiring phone numbers for things is why I don't sign up.
pavlov 3y ago
The Yandex brand is only directly used in the Russian market, I think? The company does also have popular products abroad like the discount taxi app Yango, but you need to connect the dots there. (I suppose they intentionally try to brand these products away from Yandex to reduce the impact of the Russian connection.) Regional sites and apps in general aren’t that well known. How many people on HN are familiar with Kaspi, the “WeChat of Kazakhstan”? Apparently it’s immensely popular there and completely unknown elsewhere. Like Kazakhstan, Russia isn’t a significant market globally.
- mkl 3y ago
  "Yandex" is used everywhere AFAIK. I (in NZ) have used their search-by-image, which sometimes finds things no other image search seems to be able to.
  - cm2187 3y ago
    But also can find by image likeness which allows you to find where an image is coming from. Google images used to do that but now they merely analyse the image and search for what they think is the textual description of the image.
    - mkl 3y ago
      Exactly. Tineye is my go-to for searching by image, Yandex and Bing are backups, and Google can often still be convinced to by using "search by image" extensions or the "Find image source" button in Google Lens, but it's more friction so I don't usually bother any more.
- diego_sandoval 3y ago
  I use Yandex on a weekly basis because its reverse image search is much better Google and Bing.
vertis 3y ago
I don't think it's inappropriate to provide context to people that might not be across Yandex. HN is read by a large volume of people from diverse backgrounds -- not always CS and/or startups. I would not be surprised if some subset of those people hadn't heard of Yandex.
fragmede 3y ago
This community's favorite thing is to complain about something that's ill defined. A post about BGP without saying it's the border gateway protocol will have its comments go off on a stupid tangent of if an HN reader should be expected to know what BGP is. (seriously people, go Google the term and don't demand everyone spoon-feed your intellectual midgetry!) Thus, an explanation that Yandex is Russian Google is to try and head off that derail. Of course, now we're having this discussion instead, so it seems like we can't win. Even if I've heard the name Yandex before, it's a good reminder of what it is.
- yreg 3y ago
  I don't think it's a good explanation. If I had no idea what Yandex is, the title would make me think it is a Google subsidiary to evade sanctions or something.
  - cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
    “#1 search engine in Russia”. Done and done.
    - daef 3y ago
      but what is 'search engine'? /scnr
      - d1sxeyes 3y ago
        Yeah, Yandex do a lot of similar stuff to Google: Maps, Images, Mail, File Storage etc., and referring to them as 'just a search engine' is actually less useful than making the 'Google' comparison.
- ziddoap 3y ago
  Nevermind. I was wrong. Asking someone to write out an acronym is too much.
  - 3y ago
nsonha 3y ago
Their software counterpart seems nice. I have only had experienced with Yandex browser though, at the time I liked to try out different browser to find what work best. Yandex was minimal looking on both mobile and desktop and had nice features such as its equivalent of Opera Turbo, automatically use of a separate container for banking apps etc. They also have a Russian dubbing feature for Youtube but I don't know how well it work or any risk of censoring, not speaking the language.
- MokaAkashiya 3y ago
  This is an impressive feature, considering that you can even watch videos from Chinese tech bloggers when there are no prepared English subtitles on YouTube. In other cases, it reads the already written subtitles, but analyzes the speech and divides it into different female/male voices. Some words can be translated funny in the wrong context.
The_Colonel 3y ago
I know what it is, but IIRC haven't used it, even a single time. But I don't think most people around here (Central Europe) heard about it. It's kinda like Baidu in that regard.
alkonaut 3y ago
I have heard the name before, but only in topics regarding russia, e.g. news about the Moscow stock market or similar. I couldn't tell you what sort of products they have. I have never used one of their sites/products (at least knowingly). I always assumed it was a Russian tech company having 100% Russian users. Basically like vk(ontakte) is, or what Baidu is in China?
wink 3y ago
I think you're asking the wrong question, at least for me. If "Yandex" is selling all Russia-based businesses/assets and is itself "Russian Google" - what's left then. For me this means I now kinda have to dig deeper and grasp wtf is actually going on, because to me Yandex was exactly that, a Russian search engine and nothing more (although I saw some people hint at more in the past, never looked it up).
- ivan_gammel 3y ago
  Yandex is Russian Alphabet, not just Google: they have a successful mail/cloud product, maps, taxi, food and grocery delivery among many other things. Some of those products are successful abroad.
Toblerone 3y ago
To me, the name Yandex seemed familiar, but I did not know what it was until now.
kredd 3y ago
It’s the same as saying Naver (SK Google), or Weibo (Chinese Twitter), and so on. They’re primarily used by their local residents, and have little traction outside, despite having millions of active users. Giving a clarification makes it a bit more clear.
whelp_24 3y ago
I didn't hear about yandex until last year, and it was probably from this website, and only as an option for duckduckgo to use use for image search.
RicoElectrico 3y ago
Despite HN guidelines "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" people are generally not curious about what is going on outside their country (+US).
- EasyMark 3y ago
  This is 100% incorrect.
j4yav 3y ago
I’m more curious what you’re going to do to anyone who reports to you for the crime of not knowing what Yandex is
nottorp 3y ago
I've heard of Yandex but never used it. Actually I have a question: what are they salvaging this way, considering the comments say all their operations and people are physically in Russia?

beezlebroxxxxxx 3y ago

You're over-estimating how many people actually "surf" the net. I'd wager most of HN knows Yandex, but you're average, non-tech industry, person in NA has essentially no need or situation when they would run into Yandex (aside from streaming, even then they probably aren't explicitly going to the yandex url). You would see the same case for a Chinese search engine. People in general spend a remarkable amount of time visiting the same 3-4 websites over and over and some apps.

charcircuit 3y ago
>but you're average, non-tech industry, person in NA has essentially no need or situation when they would run into Yandex They have the most popular reverse image search tool now that Google got rid of theirs
- angra_mainyu 3y ago
  Yep, and surprisingly good too (I use it daily).
  - kristiandupont 3y ago
    What are those searches? I am curious because I've used reverse image search 3-4 times in my life. It's just not something I think of..
    - charcircuit 3y ago
      The most normal use case is finding the original, higher resolution version of an image.
      - EasyMark 3y ago
        this is 90% of what I use it for as well. Sometimes I'll use it to track down a meme image as well
    - angra_mainyu 3y ago
      reverse image searching memes

wkat4242 3y ago

I know it but only because they didn't require phone confirmation for email accounts so it was great for sockpuppets. I've asked around here to my colleagues and none of them have ever heard of it. One of them asked if it's the same as baidu :)

trompetenaccoun 3y ago
Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. Not blaming the user for explaining, I just didn't understand why an explanation is needed on this site of all places. Like others have pointed out, Yandex isn't only used by Russians but around the world. They clearly have the best freely accessible reverse image search since Google has impaired theirs for whatever reason. But I guess I'm in a bit of a bubble assuming that everyone knows the company.
throwaway167 3y ago
Requiring phone numbers for things is why I don't sign up.

pavlov 3y ago

The Yandex brand is only directly used in the Russian market, I think? The company does also have popular products abroad like the discount taxi app Yango, but you need to connect the dots there. (I suppose they intentionally try to brand these products away from Yandex to reduce the impact of the Russian connection.) Regional sites and apps in general aren’t that well known. How many people on HN are familiar with Kaspi, the “WeChat of Kazakhstan”? Apparently it’s immensely popular there and completely unknown elsewhere. Like Kazakhstan, Russia isn’t a significant market globally.

mkl 3y ago
"Yandex" is used everywhere AFAIK. I (in NZ) have used their search-by-image, which sometimes finds things no other image search seems to be able to.
- cm2187 3y ago
  But also can find by image likeness which allows you to find where an image is coming from. Google images used to do that but now they merely analyse the image and search for what they think is the textual description of the image.
  - mkl 3y ago
    Exactly. Tineye is my go-to for searching by image, Yandex and Bing are backups, and Google can often still be convinced to by using "search by image" extensions or the "Find image source" button in Google Lens, but it's more friction so I don't usually bother any more.
diego_sandoval 3y ago
I use Yandex on a weekly basis because its reverse image search is much better Google and Bing.

vertis 3y ago

I don't think it's inappropriate to provide context to people that might not be across Yandex. HN is read by a large volume of people from diverse backgrounds -- not always CS and/or startups. I would not be surprised if some subset of those people hadn't heard of Yandex.

fragmede 3y ago

This community's favorite thing is to complain about something that's ill defined. A post about BGP without saying it's the border gateway protocol will have its comments go off on a stupid tangent of if an HN reader should be expected to know what BGP is. (seriously people, go Google the term and don't demand everyone spoon-feed your intellectual midgetry!) Thus, an explanation that Yandex is Russian Google is to try and head off that derail. Of course, now we're having this discussion instead, so it seems like we can't win. Even if I've heard the name Yandex before, it's a good reminder of what it is.

yreg 3y ago
I don't think it's a good explanation. If I had no idea what Yandex is, the title would make me think it is a Google subsidiary to evade sanctions or something.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y ago
  “#1 search engine in Russia”. Done and done.
  - daef 3y ago
    but what is 'search engine'? /scnr
    - d1sxeyes 3y ago
      Yeah, Yandex do a lot of similar stuff to Google: Maps, Images, Mail, File Storage etc., and referring to them as 'just a search engine' is actually less useful than making the 'Google' comparison.
ziddoap 3y ago
Nevermind. I was wrong. Asking someone to write out an acronym is too much.
- 3y ago

nsonha 3y ago

Their software counterpart seems nice. I have only had experienced with Yandex browser though, at the time I liked to try out different browser to find what work best. Yandex was minimal looking on both mobile and desktop and had nice features such as its equivalent of Opera Turbo, automatically use of a separate container for banking apps etc. They also have a Russian dubbing feature for Youtube but I don't know how well it work or any risk of censoring, not speaking the language.

MokaAkashiya 3y ago
This is an impressive feature, considering that you can even watch videos from Chinese tech bloggers when there are no prepared English subtitles on YouTube. In other cases, it reads the already written subtitles, but analyzes the speech and divides it into different female/male voices. Some words can be translated funny in the wrong context.

The_Colonel 3y ago

I know what it is, but IIRC haven't used it, even a single time. But I don't think most people around here (Central Europe) heard about it. It's kinda like Baidu in that regard.

alkonaut 3y ago

I have heard the name before, but only in topics regarding russia, e.g. news about the Moscow stock market or similar. I couldn't tell you what sort of products they have. I have never used one of their sites/products (at least knowingly). I always assumed it was a Russian tech company having 100% Russian users. Basically like vk(ontakte) is, or what Baidu is in China?

wink 3y ago

I think you're asking the wrong question, at least for me. If "Yandex" is selling all Russia-based businesses/assets and is itself "Russian Google" - what's left then. For me this means I now kinda have to dig deeper and grasp wtf is actually going on, because to me Yandex was exactly that, a Russian search engine and nothing more (although I saw some people hint at more in the past, never looked it up).

ivan_gammel 3y ago
Yandex is Russian Alphabet, not just Google: they have a successful mail/cloud product, maps, taxi, food and grocery delivery among many other things. Some of those products are successful abroad.

Toblerone 3y ago

To me, the name Yandex seemed familiar, but I did not know what it was until now.

kredd 3y ago

It’s the same as saying Naver (SK Google), or Weibo (Chinese Twitter), and so on. They’re primarily used by their local residents, and have little traction outside, despite having millions of active users. Giving a clarification makes it a bit more clear.

whelp_24 3y ago

I didn't hear about yandex until last year, and it was probably from this website, and only as an option for duckduckgo to use use for image search.

RicoElectrico 3y ago

Despite HN guidelines "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" people are generally not curious about what is going on outside their country (+US).

EasyMark 3y ago
This is 100% incorrect.

j4yav 3y ago

I’m more curious what you’re going to do to anyone who reports to you for the crime of not knowing what Yandex is

nottorp 3y ago

I've heard of Yandex but never used it. Actually I have a question: what are they salvaging this way, considering the comments say all their operations and people are physically in Russia?