Yandex Turns Up The Dial On Personalized Search

The Russian search engine Yandex has announced changes to how it presents personalized search results, saying that personalization is now based on what’s happening within a single search session.

When the company launched personalized results late last year, it was based primarily on looking at a user’s search history within the previous few weeks/months. Now, the personalization happens within seconds and is based on the current search session.

More than half of all searches on Yandex, however, are about something that interests the searcher at the very moment of searching and stops interest them the moment after. To be able to cater to such momentary searches, we now analyse search sessions in real time.

Search queries begin to influence search results within seconds. The search engine can figure out whether a person is looking for a book or a film even before they have finished typing [The Great Gatsby] in the search box.

Yandex says this change to its algorithm means it can offer personalized search results to searchers that have never used Yandex before. The company says it’s available now on all Yandex domains worldwide.

This company video explains more about the changes to personalized search on Yandex.