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Google Shutting Out Rivals, Claims Russian Search Engine Yandex
suraj.sun writes "Ilya Segalovich, co-founder of Russia's leading search engine, Yandex, has accused Google of abusing its dominance to shut out competitors in cyberspace. Responding to comments made to the Guardian by Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, about threats to the open internet, Ilya Segalovich described the U.S. search giant's popular smartphone platform, Android, as a 'strange combination of openness and not openness,' and its Chrome web browser as anti-competitive. Segalovich said that Brin should explain Google's 'semi-open' approach to search competitors before accusing others of endangering the unfettered internet, and suggested Google was guilty of foul play with its Chrome browser, which picks the company's own search engine as default for users, rather than offering a choice between rivals including Yahoo, Bing and Yandex."
Well yea. People only seem to speak up about this when it threaten their money.
Doesn't matter when it threaten privacy, freedom, etc.
That's odd. On my machine I can open Chrome, go to Settings|Basics|Search and select from several search engines including Bing and Chrome will honor my selection. If the one you like isn't listed, you can add it yourself. Sure it starts out set to Google by default, it kind of has to be set to something, but that's hardly "shutting out the competition".
Don't like what it does, don't install it.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Last time I installed Chrome on my Mac it asked me whether I wanted to use Google, Bing or Yahoo. I think it even randomizes the order in which the choices appear, to avoid bias for the first entry. I don't think it ever asks on Ubuntu. I'm not sure about windows.
When first installed, it lets you select between Yahoo, Google and Bing (so basically between Google and Bing, because Yahoo uses Bing for search).
Chrome is free. It doesn't cost a penny. Nothing (not counting incompetence) stops Yandex from creating their own free browser that defaults to Yandex. And for the M$ Weenies out there who will surely object prior to getting a clue, the right to use Explorer is purchased when you buy M$ garbage.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
When installed, to choose between Yahoo, Bing and Google. Its been like this for a while. This guy should try installing chrome again.
The gentleman Ilya Segalovich must be a very interesting individual.
I have a solution for him:
I think the time is ripe for him to unleash the Yandex browser to the world, why not?
Good luck my man!
I'm quite sure that most people who use Google Chrome do so after finding out about it because they use Google as a search engine.
So its basically the other way around.
Moreoever, you can change the default search engine, so WOW, issue solved!
Also the only reason I ever heard of Yandex was because I saw their scraper on my website. I had never heard about it before. I guess Google is doing a GREAT job choking them.
Google Chrome has always asked me to choose a search engine for as long as i can remember. Maybe they should include more search engines, but it does not default to Google Search.
http://techhamlet.com/2010/09/google-know-about-the-other-search-engines/
HTTP/1.1 400
Google pays Apple $100 million a year to be the default search engine on the iPhone. Google pays Mozilla $125 million a year to be the default search engine on Firefox. Most Bing traffic comes from the default setting in Internet Explorer. Few people actually change their default search engine setting.
This has some strong implications for the search industry. First, most users don't care which search engine they're using. Second, search has negative value - search engines are an ad medium that has to pay to be seen.
Yandex? Ewww...
That crap usually spits out lots of SEO-optimized bullshit but nothing useful
I demand they set the default search engine to my new project, ButtSearch, immediately!
thats strange
after a fresh new install of chrome on any system, MAC/LINUX/WINDOWS
i was offered an option to choose a default search engine between Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Evey time I see that scumbag from Dr. Web trying to blackmail Apple I remember what a shitty country it is.
That's because Google have restricted the ability to select your search engine in Chrome specifically if you have a Russian locale.
It's been a long time since I installed Chrome, but I thought I recalled a window popping up letting you choose one of three search providers as default?
I don't use google search because my browser/phone makes me.. I use Android because it uses google search by default, and other reasons.
Google spends several hundred millions of dollars to force chrome as default. they also bundle it with several other software and it becomes default browser and with google as default search engine without asking the user.
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/sony-defaults-to-google-chrome/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-chrome-dell-sony/13055/
but just as someone could have downloaded Netscape using IE in Windows 98 they can change default search to bing in chrome. you either have a problem with both .. or you have a problem with none.
Yandex distributes a modified/rebranded version of Chromium: http://browser.yandex.ru/
In a twist of the unexpected, Yandex Chromium doesn't ask me if I want to change the default search engine away from Yandex, though it does have the same search engine switcher in settings (with Yandex at the top).
yandex is a world leader in spammyness. i can't wait for them to shut down.
- First, an article asking about bias against M$;
- Now, another proposing a choice among his search engine and M$-based ones;
- What next? Santa's secret identity finally uncovered as being Bill?
Come on, these people cannot possibly believe the public is that much stupid, can they?
I installed Chrome on my Kubuntu machine few months ago and it did ask me which search engine I want to use. For some reason I just had to select Bing.
there is no reason why Google cannot be persuaded to sell its soul and join the Dark Side
They just have to set the "evil bit".
It does that on all platforms on first run. But there was a time when it did not do that if you had LANG="ru".
Also the only reason I ever heard of Yandex was because I saw their scraper on my website. I had never heard about it before.
So, you live in a small world. It's no great surprise. You're probably american.
Yandex is a good backup for the ever-increasing list of topics which "america" fears and feels it must "censor" in order to maintain the red-white-and-blue wall.
Not if you're in Russia, as Yandex is better there - https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=81578
Note that this code is no longer present in the trunk (unless they moved it elsewhere)?
You're probably american.
Yandex is a good backup for the ever-increasing list of topics which "america" fears and feels it must "censor" in order to maintain the red-white-and-blue wall.
Incorrect. I'm Maltese.
Also are you suggesting that a russian website is less prone to censorship? What an interesting role reversal.
From the website link...
Comments on this page are now closed.
Isn't that convienient?
comments moderated as well.
Dark mood calls the bluff, leaving a seed story in the rough.
Thanks for telling us the horse has left the barn, which is now the center of the universe, and under complete control.
If Sergey really cared, he would quit with massive publicity protest, and underwrite a few thousand public access shows to raise awareness.
$60 * 1000 = $60,000 , I'm a billionaire I can take it
You don't call it "I'm going to Yandex that" you say "I'm going to Google that" I jokingly said the other day to "Bing something" and my boss said what is Bing? I told him its that search engine you get when you put info in the address bar on IE. He always types google.com in there and searches from there. Every time someone needs to do a search they will think Google that and go to Google.com. sorry Yandex.
This many refers to: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=81578
Yandex is not small, they are a corporation, they are no google but still...
One commenter says it best:
In Soviet Russia Google choose users.
Just one patch and see what you have done with Yandex:
http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/yndx/stock-chart
...you build your own free web browser and set your search engine as the default? Google don't have a monopoly on the browser market. Heul doch.
this post is now diamonds!
They're the ones who seem to ignore my robots.txt.
Admittedly it may be someone posing as their spider, I blocked them anyway just to be on the safe side.
I have seen Yandex searching wide ranges of IPs for web servers. See: https://it.wiki.usu.edu/20111007_BeEvil You may want to give some thought to blocking the Russian Google-wanna-be Yandex. They may have have flipped their 'Evil' bit. In 2012, you should not find public web servers by scanning for TCP/80 and TCP/443. If you want to find public web servers, you spider the web. Or ask Google. If you scan the internet for TCP/80 and TCP/443, you will find private management interfaces. You find printers, routers, switches, control systems, web cams, network attached storage devices, and work-flow services. You will probably find more SCADA devices than actual public web servers. The results of this search are of great interest to the hacking community. It has very limited utility for anybody else. This is not trustworthy internet behavior.
I have had to block yandex from all my servers as it indexes sites oddly.
I've selected the google search engine in any browser I currently use as I find it retrieves the most relevant searches for what "I" am after. If Yandex did what I was after, I'd probably give it a shot. Currently not.
Yandex began as a rebadged carbon copy of Yahoo, just as vkontakte just ripped off Facebook (right down to the colour scheme). When Russia can actually innovate, only then will their technology companies be taken seriously.
Even if Android doesn't come with Google Chrome per se, it comes with Android Browser, which uses the same WebKit engine as Chrome. Android Browser on my Android device also defaults to Google search.
Also are you suggesting that a russian website is less prone to censorship? What an interesting role reversal.
for some topics it definitely is less prone to censorship, as gp said. this might not fit your stereotype, though, which in turn might lead to you rejecting the message.
Even if so, it would censor different topics, wouldn't it?
Please give me a list of keywords to search for to back up your allegation.
I feel you are probably provably full of shit, so a list of key words or names could prove you right.
I doubt they will be forthcoming.
I'm the AC you replied to.
it would censor different topics, wouldn't it?
Yes, that is my assumption as well.
Whom do you totally trust besides yourself? A realist would surely say no-one. The world is driven by agendas and those, for better or (mostly) for worse, shape societies and their perspectives, policies, politics and forms of oppression.
I am an equal-opportunity distruster. I trust no-one else's (or their countryâ(TM)s agenda), no matter how good, blunt, forceful, poor or bad their propaganda and enforcement may be.
Nowhere did I say that yandex should be used exclusively (any sole-sourcing of information that matters is incredibly naive and lazy). I said that it was a backup. Perhaps I should have said alternative since the term backup, like so many written English terms and phrases, is rife with ambiguity (modern English is a very sparse and economical language, but that economy comes about often at the expense of clarity).
My point is this: everything (including all search engines) have agendas (some self-chosen and some imposed form outside but accepted as necessary evil or too costly [in the general meaning of the word, not just money] to fight) and no one search engine can be trusted to be totally free of any agenda.
So I guessed your nationality wrong. It was a cheap shot based on a generalization of where I see most naive and/or blinkered thinking coming from these days (fyi, I come from a land that rates near the top in freedom (not the us, russia or malta and not large [by population]).
are you suggesting that a russian website is less prone to censorship?
No. Never. Nor have I EVER said or suggested as much.
How good is your English? I assume that you misinterpreted my comment. Perhaps this comment of mine will help you understand more clearly.
What an interesting role reversal.
A very pointless and silly statement, given that your reply conveys a total misunderstanding of my comment.
Yet your completely incorrect comment rests modded at +2, proving again that the Slashdot "moderation system" is just a popularity vote, not based on correctness. And that being popular has nothing to do with being correct. The Slashdot "moderation system" is just a censorship mechanism.
UID 1676506 ?!? When were you born, last year?
My UID is below 50,000 and I have tons of karma, but unlike many of you. I want my comments to stand on merit, not popularity, so I never log in any more.
Then again, this site is a farce, not the Slashdot that I joined.
Who knew? A f@$king socialist who doesn't understand how the market works?
It boggles my mind that Microsoft was criticized (and legally shackled) for including Internet Explorer and allowing other browsers to exist on the desktop when Apple gets a pass for not even allowing Amazon to have a "buy' button or link to their web store in the Kindle app. It's time for Microsoft shareholders to get legal reparations from the US government.
I would FAR rather have my browser NOT bug me about trivial shit that I can adjust at any time.
Did you even think before you typed? Ford could develop their own tires, but no matter how great those tires were, they wouldn't compete with a car, only other tires.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
"Ilya Segalovich, co-founder of Russia's leading search engine, Yandex .. suggested Google was guilty of foul play with its Chrome browser, which picks the company's own search engine as default for users, rather than offering a choice between rivals including Yahoo, Bing and Yandex.
That's not true, at least on my version. The default is Google, and under that a popdown menu offering `Ask Jeeves', Yahoo or Bing. Unlike ms Internet Explorer which defaults to Bing and doesn't mention Google Search.
AccountKiller
It gives options of Yahoo , Google and Bing. . and these are most popular ones!