Russian internet search giant Yandex will create its own web browser in order to prevent losing more of the search market to Google, writes Vedomosti citing a source in Yandex.

The new browser may be released as soon as October, speculates one of Yandex's partners. Another partner confirmed that the release will be either in the 4th quarter 2012, or in the 1st quarter of 2013. In addition to a desktop web browser, Yandex will also release mobile versions for iOS and Android.

Whether the program is fully written by Yandex, or built using Open Source software is yet to be seen. When questioned, Yandex refused to comment.

Generally, search companies pay browser producers to use their engine as default. For example, Google recently signed a 3 year contract with Mozilla, the creators of Firefox. For $300 mlm a year, Mozilla will use google as its default search engine. Before this contract, the Russian version of Firefox used Yandex as its default search engine.

Yandex, in turn, signed a contract with another popular browser, Opera.

Yandex is trying to stabilise its search market share, which has been dropping against gains by Google, Vedomosti reports. Google has recently been pushing to expand its share of the Russian market, promoting its in-house browser, Chrome, and in-house OS, Android.