Yandex co-founder says Google is anti-competitive

01600updated 04:50 pm EDT, Thu April 19, 2012 Yandex co-founder critizes Google's products

The co-founder of Russia's top search engine Yandex has gone on record to criticize Google's Android and Chrome products, UK paper The Guardian reported. Ilya Segalovich called the Android OS a "strange combination of openness and not openness," while the Chrome browser was said to be anti-competitive. Segalovich's comments, in turn, were prompted by Google co-founder Sergey Brin's opinions on the threats to the open Internet.Segalovich challenged Brin to explain its own "semi-open" approach before accusing others of putting an end to an open Internet. Brin said an open Internet is in jeopardy from governments as well as private companies, going as far as to mention Facebook and Apple.

The Russian CEO, whose search engine has a 62 percent share compared to Google's 25 in Russia, said Google coerces users to pick its search engine rather that those from Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex.

"Things are definitely going where more and more control is in the hands of platform providers. It's interesting that it's not only mobile, but it's also about browsers," Segalovich said. "That is a part of the open and closed issue, in my head. If you own the browser, the browser is the platform then the search is yours."

Segalovich agreed, however, that closed platforms aren't good and it's important that users have a choice. He also believes governments pose the greatest and most urgent threat to the world wide web.

Phone makers that have not signed deals to use Android are only able to offer basic apps to their users, Segalovich said.

Because users cannot contribute to Android's source code, it's semi-open, the Yandex co-founder said. Apps not downloaded from Android Market (now Google Play) or a similar app store won't work on the so-called open-source OS, he continued. The Android 4.0 software doesn't allow search engines other than Google's to be used to search for apps, he also pointed out. It is possible to visit other search engines once in the browser, however, like GetJar.

By Electronista Staff

printemail(0)

TAGS :  

industry, software, Google, Android, Facebook, mobile phones, Apple, Chrome, Yandex

Share the Article

FacebookTwitterDeliousSlash DotDiggRelated ArticlesGoogle details Project Glass for prescription framesGoogle says it's innocent, Oracle CEO unsure if Java is freeDigg, Milk creator Kevin Rose said hired by GoogleOracle had considered buying RIM, Palm at one stageNew Google Drive leak has iOS included, launch next weekGoogle's Brin: Apple, Facebook threats to freedomSergey Brin takes Google's Project Glass into the wild

View the Original article

Sao Paulo, Brazil names street after Apple co-founder Jobs

01205updated 02:45 am EDT, Fri April 13, 2012 Avenue is near Brazilian Foxconn factory

The mayor of a Brazilian city in Sao Paulo where Foxconn has one of its few foreign factories has renamed one of its streets near the facility "Avenida Steve Jobs" in honor of the late co-founder of Apple. The factory in Jundiai is said to be producing new iPhone 4 and iPad 2 units, and CEO Tim Cook has said in public remarks that Brazil is an area of "major growth" for the company in the coming years.The road named for Jobs feeds into the Anhanguera highway, reports AppleInsider, along which the Foxconn factory is located. Apple only recently won approval to sell the Brazilian-made iPhone 4 units in the country, and is expected to also win approval to sell locally-produced iPad 2s. The locally-made units should be dramatically cheaper than those produced in China due to Brazil's high import tariffs.

Mayor Miguel Haddad approved the name change at a city council meeting late last month, according to Brazil's MacMagazine. The proposal of naming a street in Jobs' honor was originally made one day after his death in October.

The street naming joins a growing list of dedications and posthumous awards for Jobs, who created Apple with Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne and was head of the company twice, from 1976-1985 and then again from 1997 until shortly before his death. Most recently, the Disney movie John Carter was dedicated to Jobs on the request of director Andrew Stanton.




View the Original article