Antyweb quoted the Next web article about search in Russia. What’s interesting in Russian search? It is not dominated by Google:

Most European search markets are dominated by Google and there seem to be no real local competitors. In Russia however, a fierce battle for the search query’s of the consumers is going on. Yakov Sadchikov from Quintura even mailed me that “the Russian search engines are coming.”

Reasons? Commenters point at different character set and language peculiarities (for example different grammatical cases).

Thanks to friends at Gemius I had an opportunity to read some interesting stuff about Internet markets in other CEE countries.. and Russian case is not the only one, even though in most countries Google rules the market.

In Czech Republic, for example, Seznam.cz has approximately 60% share in search. But, Google search is gaining share there.

“Other” search engines have also significant share in Ukraine, Slovenia and Estonia.

In Poland, on the other hand, Google has 90% of the market, grammatical cases notwithstanding.

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It’s nearly new year and I decided that maybe it’s high time to post the photos from Russia, which date back to last January. Here they are:

http://www.owczarek.com.pl/blog/index.php?pagename=gallery&spgmGal=2007-01%20Russia

It’s a pain to write captions after such a long period of time.

I regret that I didn’t take photos of the things I actually remember the most, like hostel in St Pet, the area where I lived in Moscow or people I met. It never occurs to take photos in such common situation and later it is regrettable.

I plan to move this page from interia hosting, where nothing works, including wordpress, to progreso, where everything works fine. Then I will be able to move also to zenphoto and have some decent gallery.

The photos from Mexico and Paris are still pending..

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“At your place niggers get beaten as well”. The saying comes from the communist times, I guess, a parody of communists who were trying to present themselves as no worse than Western democracies whenever someone mentioned human rights abuses. Guess that’s natural way to go when you’re in denial.

Half empty glass getting more empty.

Catherine Mayer closing an article in Time about accusations in Alexander Litvinenko case:

Russia’s relations with Europe have become increasingly fractious as it flexes its new clout owing to rising prices for its vast stores of natural resources. It now supplies around a quarter of Europe’s natural gas and a rising proportion of its oil. Human rights, however, are in shorter supply. Earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel chided Putin for restrictions on opposition rallies during an E.U.-Russia summit. Putin’s response: “What is pure democracy? It is a question of . . . whether you want to see the glass half-full or half-empty.” While Litvinenko’s murder remains unsolved, many fear the levels in that glass will continue to fall.

Definitely everyone wants to see glass half full, here in Moscow. It might get tougher in time, though.

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I got used to having to explain my travelling style preferences, including in particular that for staying in hostels instead of more civilized premises. But this accidental piece by Sarah gives me some background on what people might expect from hostels:

I assumed hostels were full of obnoxious 20-somethings trying to one-up each other with tales of their travels. They?d go out drinking and talking about how great they were until 2 a.m. when they?d come crashing into the dorm room, slamming doors, turning on lights, playing bongo drums and vomiting over the side of the bunk bed.

On the other hand, one of the travellers in the St Pet, namely the historian travelling with a big teddy bear with sun glasses, complained of backpackers being lazy with hostels and going straight to the ones recommended by Lonely Planet even if they overpay a lot. They don’t care to check place around the corner. Not at all in backpacking spirit, he said.

Maybe it’s true that hostels are losing they charm nowadays. Sarah’s disappointing experience would support this observation.

It turned out my fears were completely unfounded. We stayed at three different hostels and each one of them was clean, comfortable and quiet. Our roommates were lovely young women who were all in bed way before midnight. And not a bongo drum in sight!

Can’t wait to give Mexico hostels a try.

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My driver is related to owner of the hostel. He is finishing his studies. We talk politics all way. In Russian, which is a bit challenging.

- I took part in the demonstration first of May, you know

- What were you demonstrating for?

- For improving workers rights

- Do you think your rights need improvement?

Then some discussion about state of worker?s rights.

- My institute is one of the most politically active in Russia. Current FSB chief is our graduate.

And he mentions second important guy that I forgot. But not Putin I think.

- And also Dudaev.

- What, Dudaev also graduated your university?

- No, we helped to kill Dudaev.

Russians could not trace Dudaev?s phone, because his conversations were too short. But one guy from the Institute developed an improved algorithm, and they traced him and bombed him.

- The guy then moved to work at FSB. I think he works there still.

- In Poland there are not so many secret services, you know. Of course some exists, but I never knew anyone working for them, like you do

- The services of Poland are very active. Poland is geopolitically very active.

Maybe our foreign policy is underestimated at home. It seems appreciated in the East.

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I feel like resting after walking couple of days, but I’m so glad I got to see this city. It is so different Russia than one of Moscow. In fact, Piter could easily make it to my list of favorite big cities.

And the hostel experience is so refreshing, as usual. One night partying, second night talking about classical music and watching strange Russian animation movies.

Today Ermitage; same league as Metropolitan Museum of arts to me.

And tomorrow, flyback.

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Now that I kind of committed to spend some more time in Moscow, I look back at this rather useless weekend and try to reconsider colleague’s banal reply, when I brought up afterthoughts of the recent accident. “Think about what is really important”. Not sure what is really important at the moment.

At least the weather in Moscow was better today, warm, clear sky, closer to beautiful weather in Poland that I heard about from friends.

I will go to the Russian cinema for the first time and hope that the movie will not turn out to have Russian dubbing.

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Dunno for how long still, but starting to wonder.

Favorite Beethoven piece currently (if anything, Moscow time is about discovering Beethoven): 17th piano sonata “Der Sturm”, movement 3.

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In here for good. And the real winter just started. Our fearless leader, as some called him, got stucked till tomorrow; even though it’s actually because of weather in Warsaw I believe.

Rammstein Moskau:

Moskau

???, ???, ???!

Moskau

????????!
??????? ??? ????,
????? ?????? ????.

Now there will more time to visit the most beautiful city of the world.

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Tomorrow I receive HIV test results. Yesterday my blood sample was taken. Safe to say blood sampling is in the top 10 of the things I hate most.

Added. In case you wonder, the reason for the examination was Russian visa, as opposed to anything connected with Simon Mol’s case. Let me tell you this, even if you are sure, you are never sure (think hospitals, hair dressers..). So there was one good news today.

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Descending into the station.

(read more…)

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“There is so many police, I feel safe”

(song by Happysad)

Not so in Moscow, where police can create lots of problems if you don’t have passport with you. You are supposed to carry it all the time. Otherwise, problems, or give $150 bribe.

On Saturday I didn’t visit as much as I wanted because there were communist and skinheads demonstrations on the same day, and all the squares in the city center were off the limits.

Thousands of the police to be sure that the communists, 15 or so as far as I saw, do not make any hurt to Putin.

But on the positive side I distinguished several kinds of the police. Police girls walking in couples were nice.

“There is so many police, I feel safe”

(Putin)

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It’s a pity that I didn’t have time to see much so far, but I’m counting on Saturday to make up for it.

I already made an opinion that people are very nice in Moscow, though. And the subway impresses. Compared to Warsaw is more like a mine than the metro.

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CNN:

Polonium-210 — the radioactive substance used to poison a former Russian spy in London — is one of the world’s rarest elements, first discovered in the 19th century by scientists Marie and Pierre Curie.

It is highly lethal when ingested, and extremely hard to detect, experts said.

(…)

Polonium is so exceedingly rare that only about 100 grams is believed to be produced each year, said Dr. Mike Keir, a radiation protection adviser at Royal Victoria Infirmary.

“Only a very, very small amount of this would need to be ingested to kill,” Keir said. “Unless you can remove the material, there’s very little you can do except treat the symptoms.”

(…)

“Trying to identify the exact agent that was making him sick was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Dr. Alistair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at Leeds University.

Russians did it: Polonium is very hard to get, and the Russian secret service is the only considered party capable of that.

Russians did not do it: Polonium is so hard to get, that the Russian secret service would be seen as the obvious culprit, and the move would be suicidal from a diplomatic perspective. Or would it?

Speaking at a summit of European leaders in Helsinki, Finland, Mr. Putin said that ?the death of a man is always a tragedy,? but said there was no evidence that it was ?a violent death.?

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Yesterday it turned out that Karina, our Russian teacher, is also a chiromancy fan. Upon reading my palm she discovered that I have no heart line - that’s why I’m perfect consultant, heheh:)

Maybe I should get that restructuring job last year, after all.

She also concluded that I always do what I’m told. Manager I am working with vigorously disagreed.

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