4 ms·
I don't doubt for a second there was a closed-door deal with the state. But we also shouldn't dismiss the fact that Baidu is still the leading search engine in
by yeukhon 11y ago
I don't doubt for a second there was a closed-door deal with the state. But we also shouldn't dismiss the fact that Baidu is still the leading search engine in mainland China so for Microsoft it makes total sense to switch the default engine to Baidu. Windows 10 is actually pretty cool (speaking as someone who have abandoned Windows for several years). If the integration experience works out I actually think the switch is going to help (I am also looking forward to seeing what the AI team at Baidu are doing). The biggest challenge today is still making use of all the data, bring them to user in the most comfortable and usable way possible. Lots of fancy words, but I guess I can summarize that down to "shadow me, guess what I want before I ask, and do the things I want as I ask."
Surely censorship, privacy are big issues but I just want to voice my opinion on both ends.
- jccc 11y agoBut we also shouldn't dismiss the fact that Baidu is still the leading search engine in mainland China so for Microsoft it makes total sense to switch the default engine to Baidu. Well ... Google remains by far the leading search engine in the U.S. Quite obviously they don't plan to switch the default from Bing to Google for us any time soon.
- yeukhon 11y agoThe article is about China, so the same business (and political) strategy does not apply in the U.S. Simply put, maybe oversimplified, but with the political support and native integration: * both Google and Bing are born in the U.S. * Google and Bing cannot compete with Baidu in China * Google and Bing cannot compete with Yandex in Russia I wouldn't be surprise to see Yandex becoming the default in the future.
- mrdrozdov 11y agoIt's probably worth noting: * Google is blocked in China * Google and Bing are not blocked in Russia While we're at it * Facebook is blocked in China * Facebook is not blocked in Russia * VK (Facebook alternative) is more than twice as popular as Facebook in Russia
- yeukhon 11y agoDid you mean google.com or google.com.cn?
- mrdrozdov 11y agoThanks for the clarification. I was going by this wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_C... So google.com, which does detract from my point.
- yeukhon 11y agoIt's okay. I think your points are still very beneficial to have. IMO native companies always have advantage as they usually have better understanding about the culture, user preference, and government. Portal is a big thing in the Eastern Asian countries like China and Japan so for a long time Yahoo and MSN search used to be leading the game until, of course, more Internet search engines come online.
- fiveyearsinarow 11y agoBoth google.com and google.com.cn are blocked, along with all other country specific Google domains.
- mahranch 11y agoAlso, the largest search provider in Japan is Yahoo! Japan (2nd largest is Google, which has been slowly gaining). Coincidentally, Yahoo! Inc does not own Yahoo! Japan. They are only a minor shareholder. Softbank is the largest shareholder of Yahoo! Japan. Yahoo! Japan is also extremely different from Yahoo! that we know. In Japan, it's a social network, auction house, storefront, message board, news service and search provider all rolled into one. And they started doing this years before anyone else (becoming a one stop shop). The site may look dated today, but it was years ahead of its time when it started doing all those things. It's one of the reasons why they've been so hard to unseat. They got in early, sprawled out and cemented their place in Japanese web culture.
- cwyers 11y agoBecause Google won't pay Microsoft for it, won't partner with Microsoft, etc. Baidu is not a total competitor to Microsoft the way Google is.
- bobajeff 11y ago>Because Google won't pay Microsoft for it, won't partner with Microsoft, etc. Where do you get that impression? They pay Mozilla, Apple, and several other companies royalties for referrals to their search engine.
- yeukhon 11y agoMozilla and Apple don't make Internet search engine (although some speculates Apple is making a rivalry search engine). They integrate with the Internet search engines out there.
- cma 11y ago"But we also shouldn't dismiss the fact that Google is still the leading search engine in the US so for Microsoft it makes total sense to switch the default engine to Google."
- 9872 11y agoIt would make total sense if Microsoft were no longer interested in competing with Google in the US.
- mtgx 11y agoMicrosoft would never do that willingly. would they offer Baidu as an option? Sure, but they wouldn't make it the default. That would be a silly "strategy". This was forced upon them. No doubt they get some "benefits" from this, too, though, but nothing that can outweigh Bing not being the default in China.