Baidu tackles Google with pre-installed search app

Chinese search giant Baidu announced plans to step up its ongoing rivalry with Google via the introduction of a new mobile search application that will arrive pre-installed on handsets. According to Baidu, the new search app will begin shipping sometime in 2010, adding the firm has already completed deals with several unnamed device manufacturers--in addition to conventional search tools, the application also connects users to Baidu's message board and online Q&A services.

China IntelliConsulting reports that Baidu presently accounts for close to 70 percent of online searches in China, compared to about 20 percent for Google--of the more than 270 million mobile web searches conducted by Chinese subscribers in the second quarter of 2009, Baidu and Google accounted for about 26 percent each. In October, Baidu announced an agreement with China Unicom to begin preloading search and related web services on the operator's 3G devices.

For more on Baidu's new search app:
- read this Computerworld article

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