Comment by bad_username

For what it's worth, this is my first pro-Yandex comment after 17 years on Hacker News.

It's a major tech company service based in Russia, so presumably controlled by the government of Russia.

But the results produces for a query like "watch (obscure movie) online stream" are far better than what Google or Bing produces. If you need to check a scene of a specific episode of an obscure TV show, it's the fastest method (but happy to hear alternatives).

Also, the websites it links to aren't operated by the government of Russia.

Where I am, both yandex and Google are services from a foreign land.

I can't say about Yandex because I haven't used it much, but I have used Google and its services enough to know that it may appear neutral but its services do reflect politics of its origin country. For an outsider, I doubt Yandex is going to be any different than Google in those matters.

Genuine question: what can go wrong?

Oooh scary, watch out for the Russian Boogeyman!

> Ah yes, using a Russian service, what could go wrong.

Nothing if you know what you're doing.

> Weekly Yandex astroturfers strike again.

People doing things you don't like doesn't mean they don't exist.