In most parts of the world you might "Google" for the answer, a Chinese may"Baidu" it;. But a Russian would more likely "Yandex" it !

Yandex ( Russian: Я́ндекс ) is a Russian search engine and one of the largest Russian Web portals. Yandex was launched in 1997. Its name can be explained as "Yet Another iNDEXer" ( yandex ) or "Языково́й (language) Index". The Russian word "Я" corresponds to English "I" (as the singular first-person pronoun), making "Яndex" a bilingual pun on "Index".

Few outside of Russia have heard of the Yandex search engine, but that may soon change. Yandex has 44% of the Russian market—10 points ahead of Google—and is now the No. 2 search outfit in Europe, according to researcher comScore. Yandex is expected to list its shares on Nasdaq this fall, fetching as much as $2 billion. That would be Russia's largest-ever initial public offering in tech, valuing the company at around $5 billion. Although Yandex declined to comment about the listing, analysts and investors are expecting a blockbuster. "This IPO should be very popular," especially among investors eager to tap into Russia's Internet market, says Konstantin Belov, an analyst at Uralsib, a Moscow bank.

Posted: Jul 01, 2008 5:21 pm