A new free mobile appliance was launched recently, entitled ‘Yandex.City’ and providing information on such Minsk services as dry-cleaning and footwear repair outlets, car repair garages, 24 hour pharmacies and cafés. Around 54,800 sites are listed, and almost 22,000 reviews have already been submitted, accompanied by over 10,400 photos.
Co-ordinated with geographical bearings, it enables the user to find what they need quickly — and offers a voice search. The most popular searches are for banks, car repair services, hotels and cafés. More often than in Kiev or Moscow, our urbanites search for driving schools, gyms, currency exchange offices and food stores. Meanwhile, restaurants and cash machines are less popular requests.
Similar applications exist abroad, but are primarily aimed at places of entertainment; Minsk’s focuses on more pragmatic issues. The Head of Yandex in Belarus, Maria Petrova, says that service resembles friendly advice, answering such questions as ‘Where is the nearest police office / foreign cash machine / café with Wi-Fi?’
Naturally, the application relies on reviews being uploaded by users, so that information stays up to date since organisations sometimes change location or sphere of activity.
By Olga Pimenova
