Yandex to become the default search engine on many Russian Windows Phones

November 25, 2011 | By Surur

Yandex, the Russian internet company, has reached an agreement with Microsoft and OEMs like Nokia, Samsung, HTC to become the default search engine on Windows Phones in Russia.

Yandex’s search engine, which is the most visited web site in the country, is already installed on Samsung’s Omnia W as well as on Nokia’s Windows Phone-powered Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. The Samsung Omnia W is already available for purchase in Russia. Nokia’s smartphones will hit the stores in December. Also, following the launch of Windows Phone-based Titan, Mozart and Radar smartphones last autumn, HTC is planning an update release with Yandex as the default search engine on its handsets.

"Launching Windows Phone in Russia, our goal was to provide our customers in this country with the latest version of a mobile operating system integrated with the most popular local web services and social networks. Now we are pleased to announce that the services of our strategic partner Yandex will appear on a wide range of smartphones supporting Windows Phone," says Anna Kulashova, Director of Mobile Carriers and Service Providers Development at Microsoft.

Yandex has already developed apps like Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Market for WIndows Phone 7 and intends to expand this range even more.

"Windows Phone is a new operating system with great potential. It is bound to catch attention in Russia. It’s good to know that the Windows Phone users in this country will have familiar Yandex search on their new devices," says Tigran Khudaverdyan, Head of Web Portal and Mobile Services at Yandex.

It is not clear from the announcement to what extent the move will affect Bing services on Windows Phone 7.

Via Marketwatch.com

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged russia, windows phone 7.5, yandex

http://voguishtech.com Wemberg Carlo Estil

In Soviet russia search engine searches you!
http://www.facebook.com/max.perminov Max Perminov

Yandex makes very useful work by developing free mobile software. I’ve used this software on my Symbian smartphone, and now I prefer Yandex’s search engine and Yandex.Maps on my HTC 7 Mozart. Waiting for the Yandex.Maps with routing through Moscow traffic jam – the best software with traffic analitics.
http://www.facebook.com/max.perminov Max Perminov

Wemberg Carlo Estil, may be You don’t know that Google searches not only for You, but for FBI and CIA too … So, why Russia is most preferable for hackers’ residence? Or You’re really think that we still parade the streets with bears, and only You love cats, dogs and other cute pets … ))))
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sergey-Durnov/100000964100298 Sergey Durnov

Yandex is a good thing for Turkey too. Yandex.Maps in Turkey are great.
Surur, is there any confirmed info about Vkontakte integration in People Hub?
About Bing services – there are almost nothing available on WP devices in Russia. No Bing search app, no TellMe, Bing Maps are not that great, having only one function – to track location. Pressing Search button just opens Bing website in IE. Also no Zune Pass available here.
NorwegianDude

Please stop using only summaries for your RSS feeds… You’re approaching “unsubscribe” pretty fast – this change was made only yesterday or close to it..

You know you can include ads in feeds to, right?
http://sgsucks.myopenid.com/ MVC

Can we change default search engine rather than Nokia or MS limiting to their preferred search engine?
Anonymous

Bing is almost useless in Russia. Bing maps show all the names only in Latin, not Cyrillic. No Zune music store. No podcasts, even no free podcasts! WP7 hardware search button just open usual browser window (WTF?!) – no bar code, no voice search, no music search.Almost no one uses Facebook in Russia.

So, Yandex search, russian social sites and Nokia Music is a great deal here.