Microsoft Strikes Deal With China’s Biggest Search Engine Baidu

Microsoft has entered a deal to provide English-language results for China’s biggest search engine, Baidu, and also comply with the Chinese government’s demands for censorship. The deal opens the huge, growing Chinese market to floundering Bing – but could also alienate users in China and elsewhere who support absolute internet freedoms. Google remains the globe’s dominant search engine, reports Charles Arthur for the Guardian. Google is China’s second biggest search engine via offshore sites, and that’s despite the company abandoning the market in 2010 after hacking incidents and criticism about censorship. Microsoft’s website touts values including honesty and openness, yet Arthur reports that Microsoft executives have long rationalized that it’s better to do business inside the country than to boycott it. Censorship’s fiercest opponents won’t hesitate to boycott Bing or raise questions about the company’s willingness to tinker with its other products. – YaleGlobal