Google China 谷歌 and Baidu 百度
September 27th, 2006 | by Kennith |The first time I heard of Baidu was last year from a friend of mine. I was excited to see the China made search engine and how would it compare to the search engine of the West.
I was quite upbeat about it, but I was a bit disappointed… when I saw the interface of Baidu.
Let’s take on the disappointed part first. It was the UI (User Interface) of Baidu. It’s a clone of the Google!How disappointed! Google has been praised because of its simplicity and many other companies has follow its footstep. E.g. Yahoo! However, these company did not clone the UI, they have their own signature. Today, I visited Baidu again and found out their customized logo in here. It’s another clone of Google’s signature product. Why clone? Can Baidu not to follow but lead? I hope to see that in Baidu because I do hope for its success.
Now, the part that I was not disappointed: The search result. This is probably more important than the UI itself. So, I made a search for 张靓颍. She is the new “The China Idol, think of “The American Idol”. By the way, voting in China was allowed in this event! Anyway, back to the topic. The search result of 张靓颍 in Google China was more revelance. It shows her official blog and company website, but the result in Baidu was more localized. The search result in Baidu was more localized. It shows more news about her.
Now, the surprising part. It’s the search result of Tianamen (天安門). The search result in Baidu actually mention about what happen in Tianamen in 1986.
Now, which to use?
When search for topics like Tianamen, do not use Google China, but use Google, if you have access to. It will probably give you a better result.
However, when search for topics like 张靓颍, I do not find using either one matters.