Mail.ru May Be Dropping Google for Its Own Search Engine

Russia is one of the few places where Google doesn't dominate search. That only tends to happen in places where governments are very protective of home companies, very protective of what people can do and say online, or both, i.e. China, Japan, South Korea or Russia.

Yandex is the dominant player in the Russian search space, Google is only a distant third. Even that position may not be secure, as Google is losing a big partner in the country.

Google has been powering some of the searches on Mail.ru, one of the big web portals in the country.

But it seems that Mail.ru is ready to roll out its own search engine and won't be needing Google anymore, a move that is bound to impact the US company.

Already, Mail.ru uses its own search engine for some 40 percent of all searches. But those are mostly local searches, global queries are processed via Google.

Mail.ru is said to be dropping Google, though it's not clear whether it plans to partner with another provider or simply expand the reach of its own search engine.