Google boosts online search share in Russia

Google Inc.’s share of the Russian Internet searches rose in the week to May 13, while the portion for competitor Mail.ru Group Ltd. fell and Yandex NV’s stake was unchanged, data compiled by Liveinternet.ru showed.

The share of Russian searches for Google, the world’s largest Web-search provider, climbed to 26.5 percent, from 26.2 percent in the previous week, for a four-week average of 26.1 percent, according to Liveinternet, an Internet-service provider and researcher.

The search share of Mail.ru, the largest Russian-language Internet company, fell for second week, declining to 8.3 percent, from 8.5 percent in the previous week, while the four- week average was unchanged at 8.6 percent, the lowest since the four weeks through Jan. 22, the data showed.

At 60.2 percent, the stake of Yandex, the owner of Russia’s most-used search engine, was unchanged from the previous week, according to Liveinternet. Yandex’s share averaged 60.2 percent over the past four weeks, the data showed.