4 ms·

How much does state competitiveness play into China's firewall policies? If you think of China's people as a customer base, and China as a large corporation, th

How much does state competitiveness play into China's firewall policies? If you think of China's people as a customer base, and China as a large corporation, then it wouldn't surprise me that they would take any steps within their power to prevent other "large corporations" from taking away their customers. With that in mind, Baidu becoming the default search engine in a Microsoft product is a huge win for Baidu and China as a whole. It's also that many steps closer to being the default search engine for a Microsoft product in different countries, such as the United States.

Sven7 11y ago
I think this is just good for Search in general. If for a moment one stops to think of Search and not of countries\companies, this is the way it should work. Search needs to be much more decentralized than it currently is. People in different parts of the world think in different ways, express their information in different ways and access it in different ways. For everyone on the planet to then have to wait for a few hundred people in some ivory tower in the West to decide how they access information is just not the most ideal way Search should run.
- greglindahl 11y ago
  What? Baidu is already the dominant search engine in China. This deal makes it slightly more dominant. I'm all for search competition, but this isn't going to make it happen.
  - Sven7 11y ago
    :) Please tell me what has then in the last 10 years...
- bad_user 11y ago
  You should read more on decentralized computing, because it doesn't mean what you think it means.
  - lenomad 11y ago
    Not the OP, but I think he means that search should be decentralized with respect to regional differences, not computing. Eg, Baidu is better positioned to give more relevant results in China
    - thomasz 11y ago
      For a lot of search terms, Baidu is positioned way worse to give relevant results.
nikatwork 11y ago
> How much does state competitiveness play into China's firewall policies? State competitiveness is baked into many of China's regulatory activities as a form of "soft power". Some China-watchers feel this makes the market less innovative, while others feel it encourages the creation of local versions of foreign products. Of course these typically include censorship and are jokingly referred to as "x with Chinese characteristics". An example was when Apple was making a lot of boastful noise about crushing it in China, and very quickly got dinged on state TV: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/china-singles-out-apple-volkswagen-for-consumer-criticism/article9817101/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/china-sing...

Sven7 11y ago

I think this is just good for Search in general. If for a moment one stops to think of Search and not of countries\companies, this is the way it should work. Search needs to be much more decentralized than it currently is. People in different parts of the world think in different ways, express their information in different ways and access it in different ways. For everyone on the planet to then have to wait for a few hundred people in some ivory tower in the West to decide how they access information is just not the most ideal way Search should run.

greglindahl 11y ago
What? Baidu is already the dominant search engine in China. This deal makes it slightly more dominant. I'm all for search competition, but this isn't going to make it happen.
- Sven7 11y ago
  :) Please tell me what has then in the last 10 years...
bad_user 11y ago
You should read more on decentralized computing, because it doesn't mean what you think it means.
- lenomad 11y ago
  Not the OP, but I think he means that search should be decentralized with respect to regional differences, not computing. Eg, Baidu is better positioned to give more relevant results in China
  - thomasz 11y ago
    For a lot of search terms, Baidu is positioned way worse to give relevant results.

nikatwork 11y ago

> How much does state competitiveness play into China's firewall policies? State competitiveness is baked into many of China's regulatory activities as a form of "soft power". Some China-watchers feel this makes the market less innovative, while others feel it encourages the creation of local versions of foreign products. Of course these typically include censorship and are jokingly referred to as "x with Chinese characteristics". An example was when Apple was making a lot of boastful noise about crushing it in China, and very quickly got dinged on state TV: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/china-singles-out-apple-volkswagen-for-consumer-criticism/article9817101/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/china-sing...