Google doesn't give device makers a choice regarding which default search engine they want to have on board

Feb 19, 2015 10:30 GMT  ·  By

Not so long ago, we told you Russian Minister of Communication Nikolai Nikiforov openly attacked Google’s policies on his Twitter page, claiming the search giant held an unfair monopoly on the mobile market via its Android operating system.

More than that, he said the Russian government would be willing to pay developers grant money so that they could start migrating apps to Tizen and Sailfish.

Well, it appears Google should really be worried of what’s coming out of Russia. A recent BBC report reveals that Yandex (which is Russia’s biggest search engine) has filed a complaint with the authorities highlighting the fact that the search giant forces device manufacturers to make Google the default search engine, in order to be granted access to Google Play.

Yandex has been contacted by local device manufacturers including Prestigio, Fly and Explay, which complained of not being able to offer pre-installed Yandex services on board of their mobile devices, because Google wouldn't allow them to.

Google is pretty adamant when it comes to granting access to Google Play

The search giant doesn’t see any workaround when it comes to this: either install Google apps on the device (including Gmail, Google Translate, and so on) or set Google as the default search engine. If you want to have Google Play on your devices, that is.

In Google’s defense, customers are allowed to download the Yandex app if they choose to, but annoyingly, they can't change the default app.

According to the report, Google has yet to see the complaint filed with the Russian Antimonopoly Service (FAS), so for the time being they are holding off from making a statement.

Google has been accused of this sort of behavior in the past. You might remember that Microsoft approached the European Commission with similar complaints over Android.

But nothing major was issued against Google until now. The Commission was pretty skittish concerning what it plans to do and seldom said it “might” launch a formal investigation on Google, if the search giant didn’t respond properly.

Now Yandex is taking matters into its own hands, hoping for a beneficial outcome. The company says that its share of searches carried out via Android devices in the country have fallen from 52% in February 2014 to 44% this year. They also noted a contrasting trend on iOS.

Yandex should receive an answer to their complaint within a month.