Microsoft Bing in Edge is Baidu: Confused?
September 24, 2015
I received an alert about Bing. I usually ignore these. The headline did not reference search. The article is billed as “Windows 10 in China.” I am not sure why I scanned the item, but I noted that the Microsoft blog post contained an interesting factoid about Bing search.
Here’s the passage I noted:
Together [Baidu and Microsoft], we will make it easy for Baidu customers to upgrade to Windows 10 and we will deliver a custom experience for customers in China, providing local browsing and search experiences. Baidu.com will become the default homepage and search for the Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 10.
I wondered if I understood the message. The Windows 10 browser, called Edge, will include a Web and local search function. The search is going to be provided by Baidu for “local browsing and search experiences.”
I find this interesting for two reasons: Is Bing, assisted by a search wizard from Australia, now “funneling” queries to Baidu? and Has Microsoft given up on the job of indexing Chinese language content?
I recall reading “About Microsoft Research Asia,” and learning that one of the goals for Microsoft’s expanding research activities in Asia was:
Search and online advertising takes Web search and online advertising to the next level by applying data-mining, machine-learning and knowledge-discovery techniques to information analysis, organization, retrieval and visualization.
Now the company is relying on a third party for search. Is this a signal that Bing is not up to the search and retrieval job in China?
Stephen E Arnold, September 24, 2015
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