Online advertising expenditures were up 56% in Russia in 2011, overtaking print ads for the first time. The internet presently accounts for 16% of ad spending in Russia, still a far cry from TV ad dominance. Web ads in the …

Yandex, the Russian search engine giant, announced a new social networking search program. The announcement doesn’t mention Twitter specifically, but Search Engine Land is reporting that the search engine has made a deal with Twitter to gain access to the …

Russia’s most popular search engine, Yandex, announced today that it has purchased a license for digital maps from NAVTEQ, which will be used in the development of a “detailed world map” for Yandex.Maps. Yandex is using maps from NAVTEQ from …

Anyone who would like to invest in Russia’s most successful search engine may want to start saving pennies and talking to his (or her) stockbroker.  Reports indicate that Yandex, which has had little trouble fending off Google in its home market, will go public and try to raise $1 billion this summer.

The Russian search company that has had little difficulty fending off Google in its homeland is also doing rather well financially.  Today, Yandex announced its 2010 financial results, and the company saw its revenues increase by an impressive 43 percent compared to 2009.

That puts Yandex’s revenue for 2010 at about $410 million, which is a tidy enough sum.  As for some other achievements, an official announcement explained, "Revenues from contextual advertising grew 45% year-over-year."

Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook has an interesting story, claiming Facebook is testing a new "Facebook Deals" service, which would let businesses provide deals when users check-in to their brick and mortar locations. 

About three months ago, Google Russia lost its CTO to Mail.ru as she became the company’s deputy CTO.  Now, it looks like a reunion of sorts may take place, as reports indicate that Google Russia and Mail.ru have reached a search deal.

Solid reports have indicated for several months that Yandex, the popular Russian search engine, would file for an IPO sometime this year.  Now it seems that international problems have made it delay things until 2009 instead.

Blame the global economy for starters.  Unsteady markets and rising inflation have caused investors to become nervous, making them less likely to sink money into anything without a long and solid track record.  Yandex, which was founded in 1997 and became profitable in 2002, might not be embraced.