Yandex: Is It Time to Say Hello, Goodbye?
March 9, 2022
For about 80 to 90 percent of the people in North America and Western Europe, “search” means Googzilla’s service. Is it useful? Legions will say, “Google’s search service is the bestest ever.” Others are more comfortable running queries on Exalead Search, Swisscows, and one of the new kids on the block like Kagi or Wecript, among others.
My personal plan of attack, as I shared with the founder of Kagi, is to run specific queries across a group of selected search engines. (Sorry, I don’t provide those in this unloved, and mostly ignored free blog. However, if you attend my 2022 National Cyber Crime Conference lecture on finding information, you will get a list of about 500 useful search/content services.)
Why am I talking about “free” or ad-supported Web search. Three reasons:
- Today’s search “experts” don’t pay much attention to the lack of overlap in results. Hey, reading pages of results and cross checking them is too annoying. Let’s do the TikTok thing is the way to go.
- Web search engines do not disclose what I call the “editorial policy.” How often does Googzilla update results eight links deep on the Department of Energy’s public facing Web site? Or, where does DuckDuckGo get its results? Or, why doesn’t IxQuick/StartPage disclose which search systems generate its results? Or why are Gigablast results for images not really images? If one discloses an editorial policy, then the shallowness, freshness, and bias of the spidering mechanisms is disclosed. Who wants that? Certainly not the Web search outfits.
- Serious or professional Web search systems charge money and deliver high value results simply not obtainable via free Web search systems. Why don’t these outfits market to the users of free Web search systems? These outfits don’t want to end up in an RV at the Israel River Campground in the White Mountains. A low profile is a prudent profile.
I noted this article “Russian Tech Giant Yandex Says Might Default” on Friday, March 3, 2022. I have no idea if the information in the write up is accurate, but it is suggestive. I learned that the Russian Web search engine, which is “free”, may be a goner. I noted this passage:
…the company, often called the “Russian Google” for its size and breadth of services, said that if it is suspended for more than five trading days, owners of certain bonds will legally be able to redeem their debt with interest. “The Yandex group as a whole does not currently have sufficient resources to redeem the notes in full,” the company said.
The language “suspended” and “sufficient resources” are to my way of thinking a flashing yellow light. Could that light go red?
Yandex might be hauled off to the Web search system grave yard. How will this affect Googzilla? Not at all. However, start up Web search outfits may be in a position to hit up funding sources for more cash in order to provide Yandex users with a viable option.
That sounds like a slide deck phrase, doesn’t it.
Stephen E Arnold, March 9, 2022
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