Yandex launched a new version of the search engine, called Y2. The update turned out to be very large-scale – in honor of it, the company even shot a special mini-movie.
Minimalistic homepage
The main page of the search engine is now given for the most part to the search line, it is on it that the focus is made. Yandex still allows you to search not only by text, but also by voice or using a picture (including a smart camera pointed at the object you are looking for).
Search for objects, not sites
This is one of the key changes in Y2. The search engine now not only indexes sites, but also finds information about objects on their web pages (for example, about a product, a doctor or an online course), collects it and displays it in the search results in a structured form.
For example, for the query “web development courses”, Yandex will display a list of training programs with the duration of training, cost, and reviews of already trained students.
At the moment, the search engine knows about more than 22,000 educational courses, 740,000 doctors of various fields, as well as 730,000,000 products.
Big Topics – Tracking Long-Term Interest
There are topics that cannot be understood in a few minutes – they have to be studied by numerous search queries, which can take more than one day. Yandex has learned to track user requests and understand if there is a long-term interest in a particular topic behind them.
Such stories are collected in a new block called “Big Topics”, it contains the history of all search queries in a particular direction, saved materials and tips.
At the moment, Y2 is able to recognize “big topics” in the areas of education, career, finance, family, apartment, renovation and the like.
Search for videos with translation
Yandex Browser has long learned to translate videos by voice (even streams) from English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. The updated search engine uses this and allows you to find only those videos that have already been translated by Yandex’s smart technology.
Special account for a child
The developers paid special attention to the younger generation, which needs to be protected from adult sites, obscene content, and other things – for these purposes, you can create a children’s account that will work not only in the search engine, but also in other Yandex services (Music and Kinopoisk).
Adaptation for programmers
In Y2, a CS YATI transformer neural network was built in, which was trained on programming requests and on developer assessments. It greatly improves search for developers and ML specialists. Compared to the previous YATI neural network, which debuted two years ago, the new CS YATI takes into account 1.5 times more parameters.
Source: Trash Box
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
