Russia’s top search engine Yandex has rolled out a revamped mapping service in a bid to take on Google and Microsoft.
Operating on a unified platform, the revamped mapping service allows supporting and updating of unlimited data without depending on external sources.
Offered in both mobile and desktop versions, the revamped Yandex.Maps features detailed maps that offer route planning capabilities for the majority of large cities across the globe.
Yandex GIS data head Maria Orlova said the latest update is the result of 18 months of work.
"We realised a long time ago that depending on external date providers wasn’t a good idea and that we needed maps of our own," Orlova said.
"Today, we are offering our own detailed maps of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, seamlessly joined with the detailed maps of other countries, provided by our partner, so that the Yandex.Maps users can easily travel across borders.
"What we needed to do wasn’t just unify all maps, but also set up storage capacities and design a procedure for quick processing of all data for the world map, so we completely rewrote the service’s core.
"In addition, we’ve built our own software to quickly edit our maps. Digital maps require fast and regular updating and the currently available commercial products couldn’t handle our loads."
The updated Yandex.Maps covers European countries and North America with detail down to major streets and buildings and road networks.
The revamped mapping feature also offers route planning in the cities and between them, with updates for other counties offered by Navteq for release every three months.
According to the Russian search giant, the service is already used by 16 million daily users and would be useful for Russians who regularly travel abroad.
