Yandex Islands Introduces Unique Functionality
November 14, 2013
Russia’s dominant search engine, Yandex, has developed an interesting feature, now in beta. Search Engine Journal reports, “Yandex Islands: Markup Issues and Implementation.” I think the name “Islands” alludes to patches of solid ground in the metaphorical sea that is the Internet. Nice imagery.
Writer Roman Viliavin explains:
“[Yandex] ended up with idea to show to the user website functionality right into the search results. This way the search engine decreases the number of actions users have to perform to receive the answer to what interests them. Yandex says its islands will be able to find solutions for complicated search tasks. For example, the user fills in the form to call a taxi, he writes ‘Place of departure’ and ‘Place of arrival,’ then Yandex sends request to the website and receives the information about costs and time for this particular case. . . . In short, with the help of Yandex Islands users can order, buy a product, make an appointment or perform many other types of actions without leaving search results page.”
That sounds pretty handy from the users’ point of view. There are currently four types if Islands each more complex than the last: Categories, Category + checkbox, Category + checkbox+ prices, and Category + checkbox+ prices+ search. The article gives a good rundown of the functionality, complete with screenshots.
Viliavin spends the bulk of the article, though, diving deep into ways websites can make themselves Islands-friendly, including coding examples and more screenshots. Finally, he shares the Yandex link through which webmasters can test their markups. Check out the article for a more complete view Yandex’s new archipelago.
Cynthia Murrell, November 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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