search engine

China's leading search engine Baidu launched a new service allowing users to search the web via a Chinese handwriting input method.

Baidu's handwriting input method

If you go to Baidu.com, you now have the possibility to use the handwriting input method. It means that you can use your computer mouse to write down the strokes of the Chinese character keywords in the search box.

Based on the shapes of the Chinese characters, Baidu's Chinese character recognition and keyword association functions will provide several possible characters for users to choose. In addition, users can make changes and deletions to the input content.

The new service doesn't require the installation of any web plug-in and can be started by a simple click on the search engine page (手写).

Social search service

A representative in charge of Baidu's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program explained that though the growing number of Internet users in China, Chinese Internet population is still diversified.

Some people, notably old and young users, might not be familiar with the existing input methods mainly based on Pinyin. It could be hard for them to complete searches on Baidu.com by inputting keywords with keyboards.

Moreover, it can be difficult to search for information related to some rarely used words with the Pinyin input methods if people don't know the pronunciations of these words.

Baidu's new web handwriting input method aims to solve these problems.

Dassault Systèmes, a leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, acquires Exalead, a French search engine for about €135 million.

Exalead, the 'French Google'

Founded in 2000 by search engine pioneers, Exalead is a global providers of Search Platforms and Search-Based Applications (SBA) for consumer and business users.

Among Exalead’s worldwide clients, there are leading companies such as PriceWaterhouseCooper and Michelin. More than 100 million unique visitors use Exalead’s technology for search each month.

The company is involved in the Quaero project, an European technology consortium, mainly funded by the French government to develop multimedia search tools.

Reshaping the search engine landscape

Exalead has a platform to apply advanced semantic processing to Web-scale data. It brings structure, meaning and accessibility to previously unused or under-utilized data in the disparate information cloud.

Contrary to other search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, Exalead is not largely known from the public yet.

Nevertheless, its thumbnail previews of the target pages along with the results, and its advanced refining on the results page (language, geographic location, file type, categories) seem very interesting tools to me.

In March 2010, Google decided to stop censoring its search results in China, the Chinese version of Google now redirecting all queries to its Hong Kong version.

What are the consequences of Google’s move in the Chinese Internet search area ? 

Baidu gains market share, Google loses positions

Google’s decision to pull out of China results in giving a boost to Baidu. Baidu was already leading the Chinese Internet search market even before Google’s announcement ; this decision has given a more dominant position to Google’s rival.

In the end of 2009, Baidu’s market share was 58% while Google held 36% of the market. The figures provided by Analysys International, a Beijing-based market researcher, show interesting results. For the first quarter of 2010, there has been a significant increase in Baidu’s market share (now at 64%) while Google’s went down at a level of 31%.

Source : Analysys International

Other search engines in China do not take advantage of Google's announcement

One could have guessed that Google’s decision would have a negative impact on its market share. One would have been right. Nevertheless, more surprisingly, not all other actors took advantage of Google’s withdrawal : only Baidu has actually gained market shares in Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009. Other competitors, including domestic companies such as Sogou and Soso, have dramatically lost positions.

Baidu announces excellent financial results

From a financial point of view, Baidu also took advantage of the situation.  The Chinese firm reported that its revenue rose 59.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 1.29 billion Chinese yuan and that its forecast for the second quarter would break a new record.

Where are Yahoo and Bing ?

I am wondering what Yahoo and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) are doing. They have stayed rather discreet till now, but it is certain that a rival’s withdrawal is a good opportunity for both of them. I am sure they will strive to take advantage of the situation : China remains the biggest market with a population of 384 million users connected to the Internet, as of December 2009. Thus, even 1% market share represents almost 4 million of potential customers…

it appears that google is seriously closing down in china. executives there said there is 99.9% chance to pull out.

the search engine scene is going to be deeply changed here :

1) baidu is definitly going to gain market shares.

2) bing is probably going to gain market share too, because when chinese people look for something outside of china, they don't use baidu, they use google, because it's foreigner too.... i guess now they will use bing a bit more. specially because microsoft made it clear they were not leaving china.

3) google.cn close down, but not google.com. everyone can use google.com here in china, the question is : are the authorities going to block it now google made them lose face... that's an open question, and it's very hard to find an awnser.

well, it's no surprise google is closing down as i pointed out here, their quest was hopeless.

SEO for Baidu is definitly going to be more important now.  so read this article about baidu search engine optimization ;o)