Sputnik, Russia’s New Search Engine

Russia’s state-controlled telecom service, Rostelecom, has been charged with creating a new search engine that will rival the likes of Google. Named Sputnik, the project is set to enter a race, not in space but against other popular search engines.

According to Reuters, Sputnik will also be going up against local search-engine leader Yandex, which is based in the Netherlands.
On its website, Yandex claims to generate 62 % of all search traffic in Russia, so Sputnik has its work cut out if it wants to catch up, even more if it wants to take over.

It could be that the launch of Sputnik by Rostelecom is coming just at the right time. With the recent death of Yandex’s popular co-founder, Ilya Segalovich, came a dip in the company’s stock which could affect its future. Google currently generates around 25% of search traffic, so there is a chance for Sputnik.
Rostelecom has reportedly already spent $20 million. It is hoped the site will launch some time at the beginning of 2014 and be accessible at www.Sputnik.ru.

[Image via mashable]
[Source: http://mashable.com/2013/10/12/sputnik-search-engine/]