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Bing Searches for a Partner in China
3
Sep
Sep
As part of its expansion plans, Microsoft is searching for a Chinese partner to boost its Bing market share in China's Internet search market.
A Chinese search partner for Bing?
According to its chief executive for Greater China Simon Leung, the computer giant aims to grow its presence in the country and invest over 100 million dollars into Chinese companies.
Microsoft did not disclose any names of companies the firm was interested in teaming up with. Neverthess, analystis say that Microsoft will likely partner with a domestic search company.
Sohu which develops Sogou search engine, Tencent (Soso) and NetEase (Youdao) appear as possible candidates.
Microsoft wants to boost Bing market share in China
Microsoft clearly wants to boost its weak Bing market share. Bing currently controls only a few percents of the country’s search market.
Contrary to Baidu which dominates China’s search market with a market share over 70%, Bing did not benefit from Google’s Hong Kong move. Google now owns around 21% of the market. Recently, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba invested in Sogou search engine.
Microsoft has already invested around 40 million dollars in domestic firms since 2006. In addition to its search engine ambitions, it also plans on investing in companies in the gaming, cloud computing and software sector.
Google Acquires Visual Search Engine Like.com
27
Aug
Aug
Google has acquired visual search engine and eCommerce site Like.com for approximately 100 million dollars.
Google buys visual search Like.com
Founded in 2004, Like.com is a visual search engine that uses computer vision and machine learning technology to help users match shoes, clothes, jewelry and decor online and purchase them from retailers.
The user indicates the searched product and only details color, style, price, brand, etc. Like.com then offers imaged results matching the query. Links are provided so that the user can directly buy the product.
The idea is to help users find a product without having to know the brand or model, but simply mentioning a detail (color, shape, material).
Like.com also owns virtual fashion studio Couturious.com and Covet.com, as well as online personal shopper for fashion products.
Visual search to be integrated into Google's products?
Visual search is an area that Google is trying to dominate with its Android application called Google Goggles. Goggles allows users to snap a picture of any object and send it to Google's servers to identify the object and display relevant searches related to the item in question.
Analysts say Like.com's technology could be applied to the Internet giant's product search, or commerce search engine. Google may also integrate visual search into ads.
In 2005, Google failed to acquire Riya, a company specialized in image facial recognition and tagging for consumers. However, latest April Google bought visual art search engine Plink. This technology is now being used to fortify Google Goggles.
Google now lists more results from the same domain
24
Aug
Aug
According to its Webmaster Central Blog, Google made a major update on its search algorithm: the search engine can now list more search results from the same domain within the top 10 Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Previously, Google limited to two the number of search results from the same domain to preserve relevance and diversity of results on a single search result page.
This method provided the best answers to users for most queries. However, for specific queries, the old algorithm didn't work very well, especially when the user was clearly interested in a particular website.
Now, Google will list more results from the same domain (even eight out of the first ten results!), so that users can find exactly what they want. There will be still a few results from other websites in order to preserve diversity.
From a SEO point of view, this is good news. If your website is well optimized, it means that you will have more pages displayed within the SERP. However, the feature will concern only specific queries, so the changes are quite minor.
List of search engines in China
16
Aug
Aug
Here is a list of popular search engines in China:
Baidu is by far the leading Chinese search engine for websites, audio files and images. It was established in 2000 by co-founders, Robin Li and Eric Xu.
Founded in 2005, Google China ranks as the No. 2 search engine in China. In March 2010, it decided to redirect all queries from Chinese users to Google Hong Kong.
Sogou is a search engine which can search text, images, music, and maps. Launched in 2004, it is owned by China's No. 2 Internet portal Sohu but Alibaba Group is going to buy shares. Sogou means "Search Dog" in Chinese.
Soso is a Chinese search engine owned by Tencent which is well known for its IM QQ.
China Yahoo! is one of the leading Chinese-language portals offering search, email and an enhanced focus on entertainment content. Alibaba Group acquired China Yahoo! in 2005.
Bing is Microsoft's search engine. Bing's official Chinese name is "bì yìng" which literally means "very certain to respond" or "very certain to answer".
Youdao is a search engine released by Chinese Internet company NetEase in 2007. It is the featured search engine of its parent company's web portal, 163.com, and lets users search for web pages, images, news, music, blogs, etc. Youdao roughly translates as “there's a way”.
Do you know other search engines used in China?
China Mobile and Xinhua to Build Search Engine
13
Aug
Aug
World's largest mobile phone operator China Mobile and China's official news agency Xinhua agreed yesterday to set up a search engine.
China Mobile and Xinhua enter China’s search market
The joint venture will focus on creating a search engine for the Chinese market.
That could be notably very interesting for search on mobile Internet since China Mobile has more than 554 million subscribers.
Founded in 1931, Xinhua is China's official news agency and an international provider of multimedia news and information services.
China Mobile has already successfully partnered with Xinhua to provide mobile news and audio-visual programs to customers.
Fierce competition in China’s search market
Baidu, which would like to expand overseas, dominates the world's biggest online market with a market share of 71%, according to research firm Analysys International.
Ranking second, Google had a market share of 24% in Q2, falling from 31% in Q1. The US search company lost share against its Chinese rival after issues with Beijing over filtering search results.
In March, Google said it would no longer filter its Chinese search engine results but re-route mainland users to its site in Hong Kong. After China's government renew Google's license in China, things seem to have cooled down.
Other main search engines include Sogou (owned by Sohu and now Alibaba), Tencent's Soso, Yahoo! China and Microsoft's Bing.
China's search market was worth 2.67 billion yuan (393 million dollars) in Q2, up 48% year on year. The number of Internet users in China hit 420 million last month.
How do Search Engines Interpret Non-Latin Characters?
12
Aug
Aug
In this article, I'll strive to explain you how search engines like Google interpret non-latin characters. As I'm familiar with China, I'll only focus on simplified Chinese.
However, I know there are many readers of this blog from other Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Feel free to share your knowledge about how search engines interpret queries in your language.
Let's take an example: I'm searching for "clothes" on google.cn (well actually google.com.hk since Google China has gone to Hong Kong).
If I use simplified Chinese characters, I perform the query "衣服", and Google displays the following search results page:
Note that Google identifies the search term "衣服" in red in the search results page, like on Baidu. The search term is highlighted in bold on other Google's sites.
By the way, Google and Baidu are able to read non-latin URLs including Chinese characters. Even domain names will very soon include Chinese characters, as ICANN approved it latest June.
What if I now use Pinyin, the romanization system for Mandarin? I write "yifu". Check out the search results page:
As you can see, the search results are totally different from the query with the term in simplified Chinese. In that case, Google gives for example more weight to sites with domain names including the keyword "yifu".
What is interesting to notice here is that not only does "yifu" term appear in red, but "衣服" is also displayed in the same color in the search results, as if I was searching for the term "衣服". And Google suggests me to search for "衣服"...
If I use the exact Pinyin term "yīfu" (with accent), the search results page will be as following:
This query uses the right spelling for Pinyin but it's actually the one that gives the less relevant results...
How do search engines deal with your language? Please leave your comments!
Alibaba buys shares in Sogou search engine
10
Aug
Aug
China's No.2 Internet portal Sohu will sell 32% of its Sogou search engine to investors, including top Chinese eCommerce company Alibaba Group.
Sohu sells shares of its Sogou search engine
Sohu will actually sell 16% to Alibaba Group, parent of Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com and Yunfeng fund, co-founded by Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, and another 16% to a fund invested by Sohu Chairman Charles Zhang. The remaining 68% of Sogou will be held by Sohu.
When it launched Sogou, Sohu had big hopes for its wholly-owned search engine, but it has failed to gain market share against Baidu and Google during the past few years. The deal with Sohu will help Alibaba expand in the nation’s $1 billion search-engine market.
However, an alliance with Alibaba could help its prospects, as Alibaba currently prohibits Baidu from cataloging material from its eCommerce pages in its search results.
Sogou is China's third-biggest search engine
According to data from iResearch, Sogou is China’s third-biggest search engine service, though its market share of 0.8% last quarter is a fraction of Baidu’s 71%, and the 27% share held by Google.
Alibaba doesn't seem to really believe in the search potential of Yahoo! China that it entirely owns. It actually pitched Yahoo! China site as an entertainment-oriented portal. By the way, we were wondering last week whether Yahoo! China would team up with a search partner.
Alibaba is favoring Sohu’s search service even though it has the option of adopting rival technologies like Microsoft's Bing. Indeed, even if Microsoft and Yahoo! joined forces to create a search alliance, local Yahoo! sites which aren't wholly owned by Yahoo! Inc. can choose a search partner on their own. For example, do you remember that Yahoo! Japan has recently chosen Google as search partner?
What search partner for Yahoo China?
3
Aug
Aug
Is Yahoo! China going to follow Yahoo! Japan in choosing Google as search partner?
The question could have seemed awkward a few weeks ago but it is now a topical issue. Indeed, despite a global search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo! Inc, Yahoo! Japan! announced latest week its intention to team up with Google for search and ads.
Like Yahoo! Japan, Yahoo! China is not controlled by Yahoo! Inc. and operates as an independent entity. It can therefore choose another search partner than Microsoft's search engine Bing.
Yahoo! China unlikely to choose Google
Yahoo! China search service is currently powered by Yahoo! in the US. Given Bing's tiny market share in China, Yahoo! China could decide to go for another search provider.
Google could come as the first choice since it leads the search market worldwide. However, the US firm faced a lot of problems in China this year, notably because it refused, after a serious hacking episode, to filter search results in order to comply with Chinese regulations.
After redirecting all queries from its Chinese site to its unfiltered Hongkongese site, Google decided in July to stop automatically redirecting its Chinese users and created a dedicated page on google.cn. After China's government gave Google the permission to continue its activities in China, things have cooled down a bit, but the situation still seems unstable.
Yahoo! China currently filters search results, so it is difficult to imagine Yahoo! China teaming up with Google.
Local Chinese search providers?
Others possibilities are offered to Yahoo! China such as going with local Chinese search providers like Baidu, Soso and Sohu (Sogou). The Chinese providers all have censored local search services that could fit into a deal with Alibaba Group which owns Yahoo! China.
According to Chinese research firm Analysys International, Yahoo! China took just 2.9% of China’s search market by revenue in 2009, compared with 31.8% for Google and 60.9% for Baidu.
Alibaba to develop search technology by itself?
Last possibility would be developing a search technology by itself. For now, Alibaba hasn't said anything on the subject but it doesn't seem that the eCommerce giant is interested in doing so. Indeed, Alibaba Group, has pitched Yahoo! China site as an entertainment-oriented portal.
Clearly Yahoo! China is not a key factor in Chinese search market. So Yahoo! China has less at stake than Yahoo! Japan (which is Japan's beggest website), though China remains a huge market with the world’s highest number of Internet users with more than 420 million people.
Baidu to compete with Google's mobile OS Android
30
Jul
Jul
The Chinese search engine Baidu considers to enter mobile OS market in order to compete with Google's Android.
Baidu to create mobile OS similar to Android
Baidu'd like to launch its own open source mobile OS. The Beijing-based company won't actually start from scratch since it hired former Google's employees who left the US company involved in a confrontation with the Chinese government.
They will work on the mobile OS project, so there are great chances that Baidu's mobile OS emulates Android in many ways.
Search engine war goes mobile
Baidu is leading China's search engine market with a 70% market share, far ahead of Google's 24%. However, when it comes to mobile search, both companies have about 26% of the market.
The Chinese company has clearly to react if it wants to get a prominent position in the mobile search engine market. Creating its own mobile OS would help it to achieve this objective.
Moreover, Baidu is in talks with mobile handset makers that use Android about embedding a Baidu search box on their phones that are destined for the Chinese market.
Symbian leads China's mobile OS market
Android has made significant progress within the Chinese market. However, Android phones made up only 0.4% of the 7.25 million smartphones sold in China during Q4 2009 (according to technology research firm Analysys International), but they're now widely distributed by many of China’s largest wireless carriers.
The leader of the mobile OS market is Symbian, mainly used on Nokia phones. According to Analysys, Symbian-powered phones made up 72.1% of the smartphones sold in China during Q4 2009.
The Symbian foundation recently announced it would set up a joint lab along with Baidu to help integrate Baidu search functions onto Symbian.
Yahoo Japan chooses Google as search partner
28
Jul
Jul
Yahoo! Japan announced its intention to team up with Google for search and ads.
Google to power Yahoo! Japan for search and ads
This news can seem surprising since Microsoft and Yahoo! created a Search Alliance. Yahoo! won’t therefore use Microsoft’s search engine Bing which however recently released a Japanese beta version.
Currently powered by Yahoo! US, Yahoo! Japan search engine will be powered by Google. Before going for Yahoo! Search Technology , Yahoo! Japan actually already used Google’s search engine from 2001 to 2004.
Under the agreement, Google will provide users with both algorithmic and paid search results. Yahoo! Japan didn’t disclose the date when the partnership will be effective.
Yahoo! Japan is Japan’s biggest site
Yahoo! Japan is Japan’s leading search engine and the country’s biggest website.
According to market research company NetRatings (Nielsen Online Japan), around 2.5 billion search queries were conducted on Yahoo! Japan latest June (51% of market share), far ahead of Google’s 1.6 billion and Bing’s 144 million search queries. The total amount of search queries from Japanese home and office computers reached 4.9 billion.
Yahoo! in the US actually owns only a share of around 35% in Yahoo! Japan while the majority owner is Tokyo-based telecommunications and media giant SoftBank with a share of 40%.
