yandex nv-a (YNDX) Snapshot

Yandex released a full-fledged mobile browser for the iPad and for Android smart phones. Yandex's mobile browser was designed from the ground up to closely integrate the search engine and the web surfing experience, making browsing on a touch screen device easy and intuitive. Yandex's mobile browser takes into account all the specifics of mobile internet and helps users solve their problems when they are on the move, simplifying their search for information. Consumers can enter search queries or web addresses directly into a unified smart search field that understands common names and descriptions of sites. The mobile Yandex.Browser is designed to take each device's specifics into account. For example, the smart phone browser's search bar is at the bottom of the screen, for ease of use when holding the device in one hand. Tablet users often submit queries associated with making choices -- whether in hotels, recipes or products -- so the Yandex.Browser for iPad has a new interface that opens the website on the right side of the screen while keeping search results simultaneously accessible on the left side, allowing the user to quickly move back and between them.

Yandex has announced significant changes to its Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) with the launch of interactive snippets called Islands. This new feature will speed up engagement with websites and services by allowing users to action their query such as booking cinema tickets, making restaurant reservations or paying a bill directly from the search page rather than through an organization's website. Islands has been designed to provide a new level of user experience, responding to web searches with solutions rather than just information. As such, it will speed up the link between searches and services, minimizing the risk of organizations losing business through lengthy search processes or complicated web pages. Evolved from 'rich' snippets, the tools for interactive snippets will be made available to web developers so that they can add this functionality to their websites. Yandex believes that facilitating a rapid start to the user's journey directly from the SERP will improve user satisfaction and conversion rates for online businesses. The feature will be available for all searchers on different types of devices, launching first on personal computers and tablets and then on mobile devices. It is being rolled out to Yandex's 8 million users in Turkey and will then be introduced to Yandex's broader customer base in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in the coming months.

Yandex N.V. has released a universal music player for Android smartphones. In addition to streaming more than 8.5 million tracks from the Yandex.Music catalogue, it can also play music that users have uploaded to their phone or to Yandex’s free cloud storage service, Yandex.Disk. Users can create playlists with tracks from different sources, save them and listen to them in offline mode. Many capabilities of the new Android application, and the iPhone version which has been updated, can be accessed free of charge. Yandex.Music users do not need a subscription to play songs from their own collection stored on their phone or on Yandex.Disk, or to listen to tracks in a particular genre using the Radio service which streams music from the Yandex.Music catalogue. With the help of Radio, Madonna fans can easily discover other similar artists, and electronica aficionados can hear compositions by various artists in the genre. Also, Yandex.Music can be used to identify songs playing in the street, in an advertisement, or in a movie soundtrack, by just letting the phone’s microphone pick up a fragment. The full range of Yandex.Music’s possibilities can be enjoyed by subscribing to the service, which costs RUB 199 (about $6) a month when paid through the app, or RUB 149 (about $5) a month when paid on music.yandex.ru. So that the music won’t stop, the subscription renews automatically. This default, however, can be easily turned off in the application’s preferences. Users of Yandex.Music for Android receive a free month’s service upon taking out a subscription with automatic renewal. Yandex.Music for Android is available to users in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and can be downloaded from Google Play and Yandex.Store. To get all the new capabilities on an iPhone, it is necessary to update the application. Yandex.Music is a service for legally listening to licensed music. As of May 2013, it has more than 8.5 million tracks in its catalogue. It allows searching by artist, album, track or genre. Yandex.Music is available in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. According to comScore Media Metrix, in March 2013 the service’s audience in Russia stood at 12 million people.