Yandex Provides Geo-Targeted Predictive Search for Russia’s Regions

Internet, March 17, 2011. Yandex’s search suggestions are now based on the user’s location. So, the user in Moscow typing театр (theater) in Yandex’s search box will see the театр сатиры (Satire Theater) suggestion, while the search engine’s suggestion for the user in Kirov will be театр на спасской (theater on Spasskaya), and a theater enthusiast in Kaliningrad will be offered театр на бассейной калининград (theater on Basseynaya in Kaliningrad).

Yandex rolled out its predictive search feature in 2008. This technology allows the search engine to make predictions of what the users are looking for and alter them as the users type their queries in the search box. Search suggestions save searching time and also automatically correct misspelled queries. Search suggestions offered to the user are based on the most popular search queries that start with the same letter as the term the user is typing. Naturally, the most popular search queries vary from region to region.

While Yandex previously offered some locally relevant search suggestions, now all of them are based on where the user lives. This function allows tracking the difference in users’ interests from city to city. So, the users in Moscow searching for paper more often than not want to find printer paper, and the paper that the users in Saint Petersburg need is an embossed kind, while those who live in Perm look for Snegurochka, a specific brand of office paper.

Sample search suggestions by city:

Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Perm

Center

Northwest

South

Volga

Urals

Siberia

Far East

Currently, Yandex offers over 40 million search suggestions. These words appear on Yandex's search page over 25 million times a day.