Russian Search Engine Yandex Sics Antitrust Agency On Google For Being Too Integrated With Android
Yandex is often called "the Google of Russia," for pretty obvious reasons: it owns and operates the largest search engine (by market share) in the country, and it has expanded into familiar markets like webmail, online video, mapping services, and even an app store. Still, Yandex has found that Google's hold on Android is basically unshakeable at this point, so the company has resolved to take advantage of Android's open source nature and provide superior alternatives to its customers. Ha, just kidding. They're sicking the Russian regulators on Google instead.
TechCrunch reports that Yandex has asked the Russian antitrust authority to investigate Google, specifically for setting its own search engine as the default on Android devices. Yandex wants Android "un-bundled" from Google services like search and the Google Play Store. Of course, that would be easy - Android is published as an open source operating system, which can be compiled and installed on any device for free, anywhere in the world. Google's services are un-bundled from Android, and most manufacturers add Google search, the Play Store, and other services on top of open-source Android by installing the GMS services package.
Screenshots from Yandex's branded Search, Browser, and Mail Android apps. You can install them right now. Go ahead, Google won't stop you.
Yandex could publish its own version of Android, with its own search and app store prominently featured, with or without other modifications. Amazon does this with its Fire devices, as do most Chinese manufacturers (because Google's services don't operate in that country) and plenty of hardware and software vendors not catering specifically to consumers. Yandex doesn't want to do that - what they want is to force Google to let go of certain conditions that go along with GMS, primarily setting Google Search as the default. That's kind of the point of Android - Google doesn't make a free serch engine out of altruism, they make it so they can compete in the lucrative market of mobile search.
To play the devil's advocate, Google's terms don't allow competing services like Yandex to be pre-installed on a GMS-equipped device, which does toe the line of anti-competitive behavior by some definitions. (Years ago some Samsung Android phones in the US were sold with Bing as the default search engine with access to the Android Market - Google's policies seem to expressly forbid this now.) But nothing stops Yandex from offering its apps on the Play Store or elsewhere (which it already does) or marketing its own version of Android "un-bundled" from Google entirely. Basically, Yandex wants Russians to have access to mainstream Android phones with essential Googley stuff like the Play Store, but they also want to be able to pay manufacturers to pre-load Yandex Search and other services and set them as the default.
Yandex wants to have its pirozhki and eat it too, inserting its services into Android without having to take Amazon's risky road of doing it for themselves. Achieving that goal isn't impossible or unprecedented - the European Union has forced Microsoft to offer competing search engines on Windows and Internet Explorer in the past, in pretty much the same way that Yandex would like Google to. And Google seems to face new antitrust threats every other week in Europe these days. Perhaps Yandex will gets its cake after all.
-
- 1,057,001
- 316,260
- 103,030
- 20,445
-
-
[Update: More Retailers] Get A $30 Amazon Gift Card With Purchase Of A SHIELD Tablet
2015/02/18 8:45am PST2 hours ago -
[Deal Alert] Audio Technica's ATH-M50x Professional Studio Monitor Headphones Are Down To $129 Again, This Time As Part Of Amazon's Goldbox
2015/02/18 5:00am PST6 hours ago -
[Deal Alert] All dbrand Skins Are 25% Off For Today Only
2015/02/16 10:22am PSTFeb 16, 2015 -
[Deal Alert] Dell Venue 8 7000 Currently $369.99 ($30 Off) At Best Buy
2015/02/16 9:31am PSTFeb 16, 2015 -
[Deal Alert] PNY Battery Packs, MicroSD Cards, And Other Flash Memory Up To 67% Off On Amazon Today Only
2015/02/16 8:38am PSTFeb 16, 2015
-
-
-
-
LG G Flex2 Review: More Practical, Less Interesting
2015/02/18 7:59am PST3 hours ago -
Dell Venue 8 7000 Tablet Review: It Feels Like The Future, But The Future Is A Little Awkward
2015/02/12 12:04pm PSTFeb 12, 2015 -
Blu Studio Energy Review: I Wish Every Phone Had A 5,000mAh Battery
2015/02/11 11:47am PSTFeb 11, 2015 -
The Nexus 9 Review, Revisited: Three Months Later
2015/02/03 11:56am PSTFeb 3, 2015 -
Hands On With The Blu Vivo Air: So Sleek, So Thin, So Affordable
2015/01/21 9:15am PSTJan 21, 2015
-
-
- 2015/02/17 12:00pm PST23 hours ago
-
-
-
Rumor: Google Working On A Community For 'Amazing Foodographs' Called Tablescape
2015/02/18 10:32am PST26 minutes ago -
Xposed Module Removes The Eye-Searing Orange Theme From Lollipop's Battery Saver Mode
2015/02/18 9:06am PST2 hours ago -
Logitech Harmony App Updated To v4.1 With More Supported Devices, Improved Command Ordering, And More
2015/02/18 8:40am PST2 hours ago -
NBC Updates Android App With Live Video Streaming For TV Subscribers In Select Markets
2015/02/18 7:41am PST3 hours ago -
Wear Charging Widget Emulates And Improves Upon The Moto 360's Charging Screen — Available For All Wear Watches
2015/02/18 6:00am PST5 hours ago
-
-
-
Samsung Posts Sprint Galaxy Note 3 KitKat Kernel Source – OTA Can't Be Far Off
2014/02/18 7:28pm PSTFeb 18, 2014 -
Sprint Will Be Pushing A Small OTA Update To The HTC EVO 3D Beginning On February 21
2013/02/18 8:51pm PSTFeb 18, 2013 -
AT&T's Galaxy Note Already Rooted Via Odin
2012/02/18 5:23pm PSTFeb 18, 2012
-
-
-
37 New And Notable Android Games From The Last 2 Weeks (2/3/15 - 2/17/15)
2015/02/17 12:00pm PST23 hours ago -
Google Seems To Be Testing Some UI Tweaks For Google+ On Android
2015/02/17 1:16pm PST22 hours ago -
Xposed Module Removes The Eye-Searing Orange Theme From Lollipop's Battery Saver Mode
2015/02/18 9:06am PST2 hours ago -
Action Launcher Updated To v3.2 With The Return Of The Quickpage, Icon Scaling, And More
2015/02/17 3:20pm PST20 hours ago -
Wear Charging Widget Emulates And Improves Upon The Moto 360's Charging Screen — Available For All Wear Watches
2015/02/18 6:00am PST5 hours ago
-
-
-
Latest Apex Launcher Update Has Users Up In Arms Over New Feeling Lucky 'Feature'
2015/02/16 1:24pm PSTFeb 16, 2015 -
OnePlus' OxygenOS Won't Be Open Source, Cyanogen Himself Pokes Fun
2015/02/12 12:48pm PSTFeb 12, 2015 -
Google Announces Android One In The Philippines With Android 5.1 Running The Show
2015/02/16 10:59pm PSTFeb 16, 2015 -
Dell Venue 8 7000 Tablet Review: It Feels Like The Future, But The Future Is A Little Awkward
2015/02/12 12:04pm PSTFeb 12, 2015
-
source: androidpolice
0 comments :