Yandex, Russia's leading search engine, is testing a Real-Time Bidding model for its display advertising. It is a based on typical RTB technology—that is, it is an auction-based system for selling and buying ad impressions. Currently, participants include Yandex.Direct, the company's ad serving system, and myThings, which has become the first affiliate to work with Yandex.

travel.ru, forumhouse.ru, newsru.com, and klerk.ru are the first clients to try the system.

Online Display Ad Revenue Hike

RTB technology is in part credited with increasing revenues for online display ads, according to a report from eConsultancy released in October 2011.

eConsultancy’s data indicates that the average increase in value of remnant inventory due to real time bidding (RTB) is 20%. Close to half (46%) of the publishers surveyed reported an increase of 1-10%, while one in 10 indicated that their remnant revenue rose by over 50% as a result of RTB.

Only 5% of respondents reported seeing no increase in revenue.

Growing Reach

Yandex's implementing of this model is significant, considering its reach. Besides Russia, it also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. It is pushing beyond the desktop into mobile, an initiative most recently illustrated by its acquisition of mobile software maker SPB Software (via CBS News).

Blekko Too

It has also invested $30 million in Blekko, a capital infusion that allows Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh to join the Blekko board. (via Business Insider).

Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta told the publication that Yandex will help improve Blekko’s index and search results "in the tail."

While he believes that for the most common search queries Blekko has been highly competitive, the search engine has not done as well for more obscure or longer query strings.