If I were a manager of Yandex products ...

Since I often use different products from Yandex, I somehow had an idea what I would do if I were a manager of Yandex products. How could these same products be improved? And how can you improve them with a view to your region? The text turned out a bit messy, but maybe it will be useful to someone and who knows, maybe Yandex will want to make some changes from my list.



The first product that I decided to dissect Yandex.Images (hereinafter Y.K.). Well, very often I have to use it:

1. Change: Direct integration of the service with photo stocks (photobanks). Using a “smart” query, users can directly buy images from well-known photo stocks through the Y.K. service. For example, the user enters in the search bar "buy the image of the flag RK". The system recognizes a smart request “to buy an image” and displays the pictures of the RK flag, which are for sale on photo stocks, to the first positions. There is also a description, formats that you can buy and the Buy button itself. Without going anywhere, he makes a purchase inside the Ya.K. It is possible to accept payment via Yandex.Money, or some other system, as it is done now in the new version of Yandex.Market.
   
   
   
   Necessity: Often, when searching for the necessary image for purchase, designers have to go to different photo stocks, in each of them use the search and look for the necessary image. With the same functionality we create for them a convenient tool “all in one”, where you can find and buy the image of interest in two clicks. It is convenient and you do not need to register on most of the photo stocks, it is enough to have a Yandex account.
   
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   Impact: The target audience of this functionality is designers, content site managers, owners of blogs and news resources. By adding this functionality, we can also raise the relevance and number of users of the Yandex.Money service. Do not forget to note a clear plus for Yandex in the form of profit from the revenue share, which the service will receive from photo stocks for each sale of the image.
   
   
   
   Why it is necessary to start with this change: In addition to improving services and providing services, Yandex’s main goal is to make money, this service will help add another, albeit small, opportunity to make a profit. It will also be useful for a certain category of users, which I described above.
   
   
   
   Note: It is also necessary to take into account the number of requests for this smart request “to buy an image” (4 972 impressions per month by wordstat), and it is possible to think about other higher frequency requests and conduct a small analysis of the transitions from links to popular photo stocks. If the CTR is small, then perhaps you should postpone the launch of this functionality, or run it as a separate service of Yandex - Aggregator and search by photostocks.
   
   
2. Change: Tighter integration with the main search, but not the same as now. For example, now a user searching in the service of the main Search for the request “pictures of Paris” sees search results in the first place which link to the service Ya.K. and then come the results in the form of links to sites. I would decide to automatically send users to the Ya.K service on the site of the product manager. For example, if the query contains such words as - pictures, image, photo, or similar ones, then you need to automatically redirect the user to the image search results. Also leave the opportunity to return to a simple one-click search.
   
   
   
   Necessity: I am sure that if you look at the CTR of the first link to Ya.K., in the main search results, then it will turn out that most users switched to the Ya.K. service. by clicking on the first link in the issue. Then why don't we make the default transition? Users will like this for their convenience.
   
   
   
   Why you need to start with him: It is convenient for users. Any thing that is convenient for users brings great advantages in the quality of loyalty and commitment to the company's services.
   
   
   
   Effect: Increase in the number of visits to the Y.K. According to WordStat, there are about 20 million queries containing the word “pictures”, about 1 million queries containing the word “pictures” and about 70 million queries containing the word “photos”. In combination with innovation number 1 (integration with photo stocks), this will also lead to an increase in profits.
   
   
3. Change: The introduction of so-called "Smart requests." The trend in the search industry shows that everything goes to ensure that smart queries with smart cards in search results begin to prevail. For example, we can already find out the weather in our city, or watch the next film sessions and the near future trains with the help of smart cards on Yandex search. Why not embed it in Ya.K. For example, the user searches for the query "square photo cars" and he is given only square pictures. Also, do not forget about the order of the request. If the user is looking for a "photo of a square car", then a smart search should not work so as not to give false results. So you can start applying different smart search queries to Y.K.
   
   
4. Change: Introduction of an ad network to promote photos. This is the same as Yandex.Direct, but mainly for photos. For example, a photographer will be able to set keywords for which he wants to promote his photo, and pay for transitions to a photo. Photos can be with watermarks or with the contacts of the photographer. If I were a novice photographer and would like to get fame, I would definitely begin to advertise in an advertising network for promoting photos.
   
   

This is all that came to me in the first place, when I was thinking about innovations for Yandex Pictures.



I did not forget about the localization of products for the Kazakhstan market. Here are my little thoughts on this:

1. Yandex maps. When searching with a street name, if the old street name is entered, then recognize it and show it with a new name.
   
   
   
   Need. In Almaty and Astana there are a lot of renamed streets from Soviet times and this creates a certain confusion for new residents and visitors of the city. To understand how many renamed streets in Kazakhstan, I suggest to look at a specific example of Almaty alma-ata2.narod.ru/streets.htm
   
   
   
   Why exactly this? Since this update will affect most of the local users, since Almaty accounts for about 60 percent of the entire Internet population of KZ.
   
   
   
   Effect. According to the WordStat service, the keyword “old street names” in Kazakhstan is searched for about 3 thousand times a month. Also, do not forget the effect of the audience and utility. The update will be useful for all residents and guests of the city and will increase user loyalty. And loyalty, coupled with a useful function usually leads to word of mouth.
   
   
2. Yandeks.Afisha. Integrate Poster with Ticketon, or with other services in Kazakhstan for the purchase of cinema tickets, concerts and other events. Also integrate the possibility of buying directly in the mobile application Yandex. Poster. Thereby, Yandex will receive additional profit, since this application is pre-installed on many Samsung smartphones and other partners (Huawei, Yota).
   
   
   
   Need. It will be very convenient for users to view the sessions, and buy tickets to the cinema without leaving your site at the distance of two clicks.
   
   
   
   Why exactly this? Electronic commerce in Kazakhstan is now developing very rapidly, and this direction will be promising in the coming years. This change will also entail an increase in Yandex’s profits in Kazakhstan, due to the rush of cheir with ticket services.
   
   
   
   Effect. The effect of the introduction will be in favor of obtaining additional profits from the sale of tickets. This implementation will be able to translate the current traffic of Billboard to profit.
   
   
   
   Note. Since Film Search is now also part of Yandex, it is possible to implement this feature there.
   
   
3. Yandex maps. Display street names also in Kazakh language. For example, now when entering "Bügenbai batyr kөshesі" incorrect results are displayed, or the desired street is not located. It is only at the request of "Bogenbai Batyr."
4. Yandex maps. In Almaty, the most common method of finding is not the name of the street and house, but the name of the intersection of streets. For example, Abay-Momyshuly, Dostyk-Satpayev. It would be convenient if, when entering the data of two streets on Yandex Maps, it would be the intersection we needed.
   
   
   
   Note. This innovation can be applied to other cities of Kazakhstan, looking at their peculiarity. For example, in Stepnogorsk there are practically no streets at all, only housing estates.
5. Yandex.Metro. Add a subway map of Almaty. Also point to future stations that will appear in the future. Do not pay attention to the fact that there are only 6 stations in Almaty, it is necessary to add the train schedule in a convenient form and affordable offline. Schedule can be obtained on the official website of Almaty Metro metroalmaty.kz/?q=node/192
6. Yandex.EGE. In Russia, this service is successfully operating, to make a similar one for Kazakhstan. We have this testing called - UNT (Unified National Testing). The service will contribute to the development of GR (Government Relations) and will provide good information coverage at launch and will serve as a good help in preparing for the UNT by future applicants.

If you think long and hard about it, there will be many more such ideas on the localization of products in Kazakhstan. I would be glad if my ideas would be useful for Yandex.



And I will have a question for Geektimes readers - What local changes would you make to Yandex products in your city, if you were a regional product manager?