Global Voices Online » Russia http://globalvoicesonline.org The world is talking. Are you listening? Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:26:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 The world is talking. Are you listening? Global Voices Online no The world is talking. Are you listening? Global Voices Online » Russia http://img.globalvoicesonline.org/Logos/GV-Logo-Vertical/gv-logo-below-square-144.gif http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/eastern-central-europe/russia/ Russia: Major Search Engine Closes Its Blog Rating http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-major-search-engine-closes-its-blog-rating/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-major-search-engine-closes-its-blog-rating/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:35:32 +0000 Alexey Sidorenko http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104681 Yandex.ru, Russian most popular search engine, announced on November 3 that it would close its blog ranking service Yandex Blogs Top (YBT) [RUS] by the end of the month. A spokesman for Yandex.ru said the reason for closure was that the blog rating “had become a specialized media platform.” Bloggers accused the company of giving in to political pressure from the Russian government.

Anton Volnukhin (aka Ya.blogs user Antonme), a spokesman for Yandex.ru, wrote on the company blog [RUS]:

We noticed that service, which had been initially created as a mirror, a reflection of the blogosphere, became an amplifier, a media tool. The effect of a positive feedback took place: many bloggers started to write, comment and include links with a purpose to “bring a post to the top.”

Just about everyone started to use this tool - from the disseminators of the links “please help collect money” to radicals of any kind. As a result, radicals of one kind started to accuse Yandex of helping radicals of another kind and vice versa. Journalists got into the habit of looking through the blog ranking, bringing posts to the top became a paid service and now the authorities perceive the ranking as vox populi.

Transformation of the blog ranking  into a specialized media platform doesn't allow us to develop this service as a part of Yandex portal. We don't see any perspective to make it a mass service - and the development of Yandex is mainly focused on mass services. This is why we decided to stop supporting the service and, at the same time, simultaneously provide everyone with the technical ability to create their own ranking of popular blogs, their own version of the answer to the question “what do popular bloggers care about?” Similar rankings already exist on different sites of RuNet. We hope that the usage of data from Yandex Blog Search will create many similar services and will help everyone find a suitable ranking.

Artemiy Lebedev (aka LJ-user tema [RUS]), one of the most influential and controversial personalities of RuNet, is the first who started using Yandex Blog Top RSS on his Web site [RUS]. Lebedev claimed that the ranking was shut down due to the reasons not mentioned in the official statement from Yandex:

Well, to be short, Yandex got completely fed up with complains about the blog ranking which has always been the most crystal clear and honest rating in the world.

This is why rating will continue to exist on the Web site of Artemy Lebedev's Studio…

Because it is written in the studio charter that politicians and priests can f…k themselves, the director of the company will not hesitate to tell any politician or pries to f…k themselves.

First, let f…k themselves […] anyone who is not OK with the fact that the ranking is created by a robot on the basis of objective parameters.

The other version of Yandex Blog Top RSS also appeared on the site Whoyougle [RUS].

Yandex.ru has bigger audience than many cable TV-channels in Russian (20 million visitors in September 2009 [RUS]). Bloggers used the popularity of the site to bring many controversial topics to the attention of the Russian audience by including links and adding comments to the posts. Some believe this led to political pressure resulting in the elimination of the blog ranking.

Habrahabr user SSE [RUS] claims [RUS] that political pressure on Yandex wasn't a secret:

It became known as early as in October that someone “at the top” wasn't very happy with the free ranking of alternative points of view.

Andrey Malgin (aka LJ-user avmalgin[RUS]) explained [RUS]:

A pleasing picture that we saw in  TV newscasts was very different from the things that bloggers, especially politicized ones, were writing about. Now this has been ended…

Roman Ivanov (aka LJ-user kukutz [RUS]), Yandex “chief Lulz officer” (Yandex virtual spokesman), argues [RUS] that the Yandex blog ranking did not attract a large audeince and had only 7 thousand visitors a day. At the same time, the amount Yandex Blog Search monthly visitors  in September 2009 was around 2,5 mln visitors in September 2009 [RUS] or 12,5 percent of the total monthly visitors of Yandex.ru. Many RuNet users strongly disagree with this statistics and claim that the blog ranking was much more popular than Yandex officially announced.

Additional info

Yandex.ru dominates Russian search engine market. According to Vedomosti newspaper [RUS], it is accouned for 54,5 percent of the Russian search traffic. In July 2009, ComScore research [ENG] stated that Yandex is among top 10 world's search engines with 1,5 percent of the world search traffic.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-major-search-engine-closes-its-blog-rating/feed/ 1 Russia: Markelov's Alleged Killers Arrested http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-markelovs-alleged-killers-arrested/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-markelovs-alleged-killers-arrested/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:49:54 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104971 Russia Blog reports on the arrest of the alleged killers of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-markelovs-alleged-killers-arrested/feed/ 0 Russia: Calling Abkhazia Via Russia http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-calling-abkhazia-via-russia/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-calling-abkhazia-via-russia/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:46:15 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104969 Eternal Remont reports that “as of November 16, Abkhazia will adopt Russian area codes for telephone service. This means than everyone trying to reach Uncle Bagrat in Gagra will have to call Russia and not Georgia.”

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/russia-calling-abkhazia-via-russia/feed/ 1 CEE: Social Networks and the Media http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/cee-social-networks-and-the-media/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/cee-social-networks-and-the-media/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:36:03 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104962 Information Policy links to a BusinessWeek/TOL article on social networks and the media in Central and Eastern Europe.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/06/cee-social-networks-and-the-media/feed/ 1 CEE: “20 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall” - a Poll http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/cee-20-years-after-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-a-poll/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/cee-20-years-after-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-a-poll/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:42:17 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104947 Foreign Policy Association's Russia blog writes about the results of a Pew Research Center's poll on poverty, wealth and attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe “20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/cee-20-years-after-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-a-poll/feed/ 0 Russia, U.S.: Abramovich Pays $47,221 for Dinner http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/russia-u-s-abramovich-pays-47221-for-dinner/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/russia-u-s-abramovich-pays-47221-for-dinner/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:27:43 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104945 A discussion of Roman Abramovich's $47,221 dinner tab from a NYC restaurant - at Eternal Remont.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/russia-u-s-abramovich-pays-47221-for-dinner/feed/ 0 Russia: Drug Abuse and Alcoholism http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/russia-drug-abuse-and-alcoholism/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/russia-drug-abuse-and-alcoholism/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:22:10 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104943 OpenDemocracy.net writes about Russia's drug abuse problems. The NYTimes' The Lede and Eternal Remont write about the Russian government's attempts to fight alcoholism.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/05/russia-drug-abuse-and-alcoholism/feed/ 1 Russia: Blogger Throws Shoe at Samara Mayor http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/04/blogger-throws-a-shoe-at-samara-city-mayor/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/04/blogger-throws-a-shoe-at-samara-city-mayor/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:03:19 +0000 Alexey Sidorenko http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104611 Looks like political shoe-throwing is becoming mainstream not only in Iraq. The world has seen the sixth case recently, when, during a press conference, Vitaly Papilkin (aka LJ user papilkin [RUS]) threw his shoe at Samara mayor Viktor Tarhov, elected to his post in one of Russia's largest cities (pop. 1.13 million) in 2007. Two YouTube videos [RUS] of the incident are available - Video 1 and Video 2.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/04/blogger-throws-a-shoe-at-samara-city-mayor/feed/ 2 Europe: International Black Sea Action Day http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/europe-international-black-sea-action-day/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/europe-international-black-sea-action-day/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:16:29 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104442 At Th!nk About It, Adela writes about International Black Sea Action Day.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/europe-international-black-sea-action-day/feed/ 0 Russia: Surkov and Western Media Coverage http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-surkov-and-western-media-coverage/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-surkov-and-western-media-coverage/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:01:11 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104440 Poemless writes about Vladislav Surkov and Western media coverage of Russia.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-surkov-and-western-media-coverage/feed/ 1 Russia: AK-47 & Copyright; Time Zones http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-ak-47-time-zones/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-ak-47-time-zones/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:39:45 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104425 Eternal Remont writes about “copyright protection for the AK-47″; FP's Passport writes about plans to cut the 7-hour time difference between Moscow and Vladivostok to 4 hours.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-ak-47-time-zones/feed/ 0 Russia: Potential for Rebellion in Toliatti http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-potential-for-rebellion-in-toliatti/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-potential-for-rebellion-in-toliatti/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:34:07 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104423 Window on Eurasia reports that “Russian government plans to lay off 50,000 autoworkers in Toliatti […] have sparked rumors that Moscow plans to introduce interior ministry troops to keep order and that at least some of the workers plan to use arms to defend their jobs.”

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-potential-for-rebellion-in-toliatti/feed/ 0 Russia: The Cossack Factor http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-the-cossack-factor/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-the-cossack-factor/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:30:28 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104421 Window on Eurasia writes that “articles in the Russian blogosphere suggest both that an increasing number of Cossacks view themselves as victims and are prepared to act as an independent force and that the Russian government is increasingly concerned about that possibility, something that could undermine Moscow’s control of the North Caucasus and other parts of the Russian periphery.”

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-the-cossack-factor/feed/ 0 Europe: The Berlin Wall http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/europe-the-berlin-wall/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/europe-the-berlin-wall/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:26:08 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104419 Leopolis celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

]]> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/europe-the-berlin-wall/feed/ 1 Russia: Snow and the Language http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-snow-and-the-language/ http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/03/russia-snow-and-the-language/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:46:59 +0000 Veronica Khokhlova http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=104408 “In Russia Snow Walks…” - notes on the Russian language and the Russian winter, at Russian Blog.

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