Russia to have Yandex Search on Windows 10

Microsoft on Tuesday (13 October) partnered with Russia's internet giant Yandex to integrate Yandex Search into the Windows 10 operating system. The new partnership comes weeks after the software company announced its partnership with Baidu to offer local search experience for Chinese Windows 10 users.

According to a strategic cooperation agreement, Microsoft will offer Yandex Search within Windows 10 in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey and several other countries in the region. The local search will be available in Microsoft Edge as well as Internet Explorer across all the Windows 10 running devices. This would expand the presence of Yandex Search that already has more than 57% of the country's search market.

"We are committed to delivering a Windows 10 experience that our customers around the world will love – one of the ways we will do this is through locally relevant experiences," said Terry Myerson, executive vice president, Windows and Devices, Microsoft. "Microsoft and Yandex have a long-standing, successful partnership with Yandex search currently integrated in Windows Phone locally, and we look forward to introducing Yandex search to our customers across the Windows 10 ecosystem in these markets."

Apart from expanding the presence of Yandex, Microsoft and Yandex have agreed to highlight features of Windows 10 through the Yandex homepage. The Russian company will additionally provide a link to its visitors to download and install the official Windows 10 package for their computing devices.

"Windows 10 has already proven to be a success, while demonstrating enormous growth potential, not least because of Microsoft's willingness to cooperate with strong players in local markets," said Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex. "The new agreement is a logical step in the development of our well-established partnership with Microsoft affirming the high quality of our products."

Over time, Yandex will deliver universal Windows applications for search, navigator, music, taxi Sudak, markets and maps in the country to bring more Russian users on board.

Microsoft released Windows 10 worldwide on 29 July and recently claimed to have surpassed the mark of 110 million users. The operating system has the Microsoft Edge browser and comes with Cortana integration to deliver an advanced computing experience.