Finding “Angry Birds” or other smart phone games and apps in Russian has just gotten easier. Russian search giant Yandex launched a new search engine for mobile apps yesterday at apps.yandex.ru.
“Yandex search for mobile applications is the first Yandex service whose mobile version was launched before its desktop release,” said Denis Ivanov, project manager. “When making and developing our services, we are directed by, first and foremost, their practical application. Creating a service primarily for mobile products requires creating a mobile product.”
In a market that is dominated by Symbian, the Yandex.AppSearch returns results for all platforms. However, it doesn’t require the exact name of an app in order to deliver relevant results. In addition to various keywords and other ranking factors, the search algorithm also takes app ratings into account when returning results.
All results are returned in Russian, even if the initial query was in English. However, if a particular app is not written in Russian, the app will still be returned. For example, people searching for [монополия](Monopoly) will be able to download the mobile version of the popular board game from the App Store even though it isn’t featured there in Russian.
Currently in beta, Yandex.AppSearch is taking a page out of Google’s book and released only in beta format for users in Russia. Speaking with Search Engine Watch, a spokesperson for Yandex wouldn’t commenting on future plans for versions for other countries or languages.