Yandex Launches Neuro in Search

Yandex has unveiled its latest innovation, Neuro, a service that merges advanced search capabilities with large generative models. This groundbreaking feature is now available in the newest versions of Yandex applications, including those integrated with Alice, and in the Yandex Browser.

Neuro offers a new way for users to search for answers by leveraging the power of neural networks.

To access this feature, users need to log in to their Yandex account and activate the “Neuro” function by toggling the switch next to the search bar.

Upon entering a query, users receive responses generated by neural networks, which compile information from various sources and provide a synthesized answer with links to the original sources.

Yandex Neuro in action. Credit: Yandex (ya.ru)

Interactive and Context-Aware Responses

Neuro is designed to engage in a dialogue with users, allowing them to ask follow-up questions or seek clarification. The service adapts to the context of the conversation, providing relevant and coherent responses. This interactive feature ensures that users can explore topics in depth and receive comprehensive information tailored to their needs.

Versatile Input Methods

In addition to text-based queries, Neuro supports image inputs. Users can upload pictures and ask related questions, making it a versatile tool for obtaining information in various formats.

Real-Time, Reliable Information

One of Neuro’s standout features is its ability to draw information from the latest internet sources rather than relying on a static memory model. This ensures that responses are always up-to-date and accurate, reflecting the most recent information available online. Each response includes citations and links to the web pages from which the information was extracted, ensuring transparency and reliability.

Enhanced User Experience

A dedicated page for the Neuro service highlights its usefulness for understanding complex topics. Neuro studies and collates information from multiple sources, emphasizing important points and guiding users on what to focus on.

First, neural networks reformulate the question. Then they find relevant sources for the answer and select the five most useful. Then they collect a clear answer from the information in these sources.

Andrey Sebrant, Director of Strategic Marketing of Services at Yandex, emphasized the practical benefits of Neuro in his Telegram channel.

He noted that while traditional search methods still excel in scenarios requiring images, tables, or extensive link navigation, Neuro is exceptionally beneficial for obtaining well-structured textual answers.

Sebrant clarified that Neuro operates on top of the search engine, ensuring the same freshness and relevance as the search index, distinguishing it from models like GPT-4 that generate responses independently.

A Major Milestone

Dmitry Masyuk, head of the Search and Advertising Technologies business group at Yandex, described Neuro as the most significant update in the search sector in the last two decades.

This new product, positioned at the intersection of search and generative neural networks, represents a radical evolution in how Yandex approaches information retrieval and user interaction.

Future Prospects

The announcement of Neuro was made on Yandex’s Telegram channel on April 13, following the introduction of a new generation of Alice and Alice Pro, which also utilize the YandexGPT neural network. These developments underscore Yandex’s commitment to integrating advanced AI technologies to enhance user experience and provide cutting-edge search solutions.

Neuro is poised to transform how users interact with search engines, offering a seamless blend of real-time data retrieval and advanced language processing to deliver high-quality, reliable answers.

Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor is an experienced SEO consultant and has worked with brands and companies on optimizing for Russia (and Yandex) for a number of years. Winner of the inaugural 2018 TechSEO Boost competition, webmaster at HreflangChecker.com and Sloth.Cloud, and founder of RussianSearchNews.com.