search-engine

Chinese search company Baidu launched a Thai version of its navigation directory site Hao123.com, and actually powers Google for search.

Baidu powers Google in Thailand

Acquired in 2005 by Baidu, Hao123 is a very popular site in China as it is often set as homepage on Internet cafe browsers. It provides users with hundreds of common websites.

On Chinese language Hao123 website, Baidu is powered as default search engine and appears in the top websites.

Chinese version of Hao123

However, on the Thai-language website, Google is the default search box, as well as placed on top.

Thai version of Hao123

While Google is Baidu’s main competitor in China, it is interesting to see that the Chinese search company actually promotes its rival in Thailand.

I see only one good reason for this. Google's algorithm should be more accurate in Thai than Baidu’s.

Baidu unveils Zhidao in Middle-East

Baidu also recently launched an Arabic version of its popular Q&A site Zhidao.

Arabic version of Baidu Zhidao

So far, over 6,000 questions, mainly about love, health, and sports, are answered on zhidao.baidu.com.eg. The website is currently unable to be visited.

All these releases clearly underline Baidu's willingness to expand abroad. The battle between Baidu and Google in China may be only the beginnings of a larger war to come in world's search market.

The People's Daily newspaper recently officially launched Goso.cn, a news search engine.

Previously available as a beta version, Goso.cn has beaten Xinhua News Agency to become the first search engine in China run by a national media organization.

Last year, Xinhua joined forces with China Mobile to establish an Internet search service.

Goso.cn enables users to search information in news, pictures, blogs, videos and micro blogs. It can also analyze the popularity of certain news topics, and thus help media professionals.

It will be difficult for Goso to compete with other players, notably Baidu which leads China's Internet search market. Other search engines like Google, Sogou, Soso, etc. have already many difficulties to grab market share from Baidu.

Goso is expected to launch a mobile version in the next coming months.

Google recently unveiled a new feature, called Instant Previews, that allows users to instantly see a preview of a website within Google’s search results page.

How to use Google Instant Previews

In order to enable Instant Previews, users need to click once on the magnifying glass located next to the search results. After activating the feature, the result will be highlighted in a blue background and you will be able to see a full preview of the web page on the right sidebar.

If you click anywhere on the preview, you’ll be directly taken to the website. For example, here is a search for [seo Beijing] :

Instant Previews increase user satisfaction

In some cases, Google can also highlight the words on the page being previewed. According to Google, people using Instant Previews are 5% more satisfied with the results they clicked on. Indeed, they can preview and evaluate the page before visiting the website and find the information they were looking for.

From a SEO point of view, Google Instant Previews doesn’t change anything in Google’s search algorithm and rankings. When a user clicks on the title of a result and visits a website, it counts as a normal click, regardless of whether the result has been previewed. Keep in mind that previewing a result doesn't count as a click.

However, some webmasters noticed problems with Analytics since the introduction of Instant Previews. Indeed, some users complained of an unusual increase in their pageviews. However, Google indicated that it resolved the issue.

A few months ago, Google also launched Instant Search, allowing users to get search results as they type their query and leading to changes on SEO & SEM. 

Google Instant Ad Previews next ?

After launching Instant Previews on search results, Google could create an Instant Ad Previews.

As you may have noticed, users who enabled Instant Previews don't see Google’s ads anymore, and then may do some damage to ad clicks. Google said it was OK because most users interested in the organic results focus on the unpaid results rather than the ads.

So, according to Google, previews won't have any effect on users already ignoring the ads. And you, what do you think ? Will Google Instant Previews impact paid search ?

Doug Leeds, president of Ask.com, has announced on the company blog that there wouldn't be any further internal development in the search engine.

Ask.com gives up search for Q&A

Ask.com decided to give up on search. Even if the website will still offer a search box, the search technology will be outsourced, likely to Google with which the company has already a partnership (Yahoo! did the same with Bing).

The company nows wants to focus on its Q&A product that was launched last July. It already faces competition with websites like Yahoo! answers and Quora. This decision of giving up on search will lead to lay off 130 search engineers in New Jersey, USA and Hangzhou, China.

Search is a very competitive market

Launched in 1996 as Ask Jeeves, Ask.com was one of the most popular search engines. However, Ask.com only represents today 0.41% of all searches operated worldwide in 2010 (StatCounter), and 3.4% in the US (comScore).

As you can see in our post about search engine market share by country, players have huge difficulty to fight against Google and Yahoo! in many countries, China being an exception with Baidu leading the market.