Digital Media

Russian-language Firefox users will see a new default search provider soon: Google rival Yandex.

Mozilla currently has Google set to be the default search engine in Russian Firefox, but it concluded that Yandex was the better choice, according to a blog post by Mozilla General Counsel Harvey Anderson on Friday.

"Over the past few months, we have listened to feedback, talked with our localizers, studied the trends of our Firefox Yandex builds, and reviewed the Yandex user experience. All this activity led us to the conclusion that our Russian users really wanted direct access to the Yandex search services in official Firefox RU builds," Anderson said.

"As a result, we're planning on setting Yandex as the default search provider for the Firefox 3.1 Russian locale builds," he said. Version 3.1 is due in coming weeks, after a third beta version is released and tested.

Mozilla gets the vast majority of its revenue through a partnership under which Google shares revenue from search ads. In 2007, that was $66 million of Mozilla's $75 million total revenue.

Details on the change can be seen in the Mozilla bug tracker, which specifically refers to "the new business arrangement between Mozilla and Yandex in Russia."

Russian antitrust regulators have blocked Google's acquisition of ZAO Begun, an online advertising unit of Rambler Media.

The companies had agreed to the terms of the $140 million acquisition in July, but Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service said "nyet." According to Svetlana Gladkova's translation of a Russian news report, the reason is that Google hadn't submitted complete information on employees in Russia, so the FAS couldn't evaluate the deal's consequences.

Google is evaluating its next move.

"We are very disappointed to hear that FAS has come to this decision. We strongly believe that this acquisition will enable us to significantly improve opportunities for Russian users, advertisers and publishers as well as the entire industry. At this time we are reviewing FAS's decision. Once this process is complete, we will decide on our next steps," the company said in a statement.

Google already is tangling with antitrust authorities in the United States, Canada, and Europe over a search-ad deal with Yahoo.

(Via Google BLogoscoped.)

Russian Internet site Rambler Media has agreed to sell its advertising unit, ZAO Begun, to Google, and to use Google's technology for search and advertisements.

Rambler currently owns 50.1 percent of Begun, but will buy the remaining 49.9 percent from Bannatyne and then sell the entirety to Google for $140 million in cash, the company said Friday. Of that total, $69.9 million will go to Bannatyne, the company said. Rambler expects to end up with about $50 million from the deal, which it will use for investments and potential acquisitions.

The move marks an expansion of Google's effort to penetrate the Russian market, where portal Yandex still dominates search. Begun has more than 40,000 advertisers and includes more than 143,000 Russian-language sites in its partner network, Rambler said.

On the advertising side, Rambler will use Google's AdSense for Search and AdSense for Content programs.

"This agreement illustrates our commitment to investing in Russia, where online advertising is currently experiencing rapid growth," Mohammad Gawdat, Google's managing director for emerging markets, said in a statement. "We are very excited about the opportunity to deliver more relevant search and ads to users and provide advertisers and publishers with better advertising technology to help them succeed in their own businesses."