In 2014, Rostelecom launched a search engine and the same-named browser Sputnik, which, however, has not gained wide popularity in the last time - according to LiveInternet, sputnik.ru does not even have 1% of the search market for runet. In May of this year, several interlocutors close to the operator told Vedomosti that the project should be either closed or reoriented. But Rostelecom still decided to invest in this service. As follows from the materials of the purchases of the state operator, Rostelecom will spend 260.4 million rubles for the development of the search engine "Sputnik" and the browser with the same name.

Now Rostelecom wants to improve the quality of search, for example, by isolating keywords in "verbose requests", it follows from the terms of reference. In addition, the search engine should learn how to analyze the flow of user requests on the portal. There are tasks for the development of the browser: it should give corporate users the ability to control the operations of browser users. In addition, the contractor was to provide the possibility of a hidden installation and removal of the browser on the computer. Among the tasks already realized, the representative of the state operator calls the possibility of an extended search with specification of query parameters. In addition, several companies and government agencies are testing two new products created this year - Corporate Search and Corporate Browser. In addition, the browser "Sputnik" should operate under operating systems from the register of domestic software, the technical assignment of "Rostelecom" says.

One of the main tasks of Sputnik was to ensure the priority of official sources of information and high relevance in general on requests related to the interaction of people and social institutions, told Rostelecom.

In May this year, Rostelecom's president Mikhail Oseevsky told reporters that the state operator does not plan to close the Sputnik search engine project and may have "additional applications" that can be used to "process large data."

Indeed, the technical task envisages the creation of technologies for analyzing large data, the representative of Rostelecom Andrei Polyakov points out. According to him, now Rostelecom sees Sputnik as its technology center in the field of processing such data. Based on the analysis of data obtained by the search engine, the state operator in 2017 conducted pilot projects to provide targeted services and services to individual groups of subscribers and was pleased with the results, says Polyakov.

The reason that Google or Yandex can work with large data is that even earlier their search engines won in the competitive struggle, says KPMG partner Nikolai Legkodimov. Then around the search engines there was an infrastructure that allowed to collect large data of users. To analyze these data, "Satellite" should first learn how to attract them, summarizes Legkodimov.

It is unlikely that Rostelecom will manage to bring its search engine to wide popularity - the current situation differs little from the attempt of 2014, argues the chief analyst of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications Karen Ghazaryan. In addition, the situation is complicated by the lack of staff. The browser is more promising because of state customers, which Rostelecom can offer its own development, Kazarian says.