Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has been reported as lamenting the fact that while Google and Yandex are vast archives for storing everyday user-generated “art,” the organization of this information is a “complete mess” and needs to be channeled to a more civilized place.” “We have devoted a lot of time to debate about whether Russia needs its own search engine or not. Now work on this project continues,” President Medvedev said.
According to CNews.ru, a Russian site specializing in IT issues, the government has considered the situation from two basic perspectives: either to acknowledge Yandex as a national search engine or to create a new search engine either from scratch or based on an existing platform, like Rambler.
President Medvedev’s public remarks last week will perhaps reactivate the government’s efforts in this direction. Within the budget for the “Information Society” program adopted in late 2010, there is a passage on “The development of information search tools for various types of content.” This section of the program, to be completed by 2013, has been allocated 470 million rubles ($16.5 million).
The project falls under the administrative oversight of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, but little action seems to have been taken yet to move the project along. In late 2010, responding to a question concerning this project, Communications and Mass Media minister Igor Shchegolev explained that this search tool will be used for the needs of public authorities.
Another source inside the Ministry, responding to the question posed by CNews.ru about the status of plans for the establishment of a ‘national search engine,’ replied that the Ministry was “unaware of the status of the project.”
Source: CNews.ru
