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Microsoft Partners With Baidu, China's Top Search Engine
countertrolling writes with news that Microsoft has struck an agreement with Baidu.com, the most popular search engine in mainland China, to provide results for English-language queries. From the NY Times:
"Baidu, which dominates Chinese-language search services here with about 83 percent of the market, has been trying for years to improve its English-language search services because English searches on its site are as many as 10 million a day, the company said. Now it has a powerful partner. 'More and more people here are searching for English terms,' Kaiser Kuo, the company’s spokesman, said Monday. 'But Baidu hasn’t done a good job. So here’s a way for us to do it.' Baidu and Microsoft did not disclose terms of the agreement. But the new English-language search results will undoubtedly be censored, since Beijing maintains strict controls over Internet companies and requires those operating on the mainland to censor results the government deems dangerous or troublesome, including references to human rights issues and dissidents."
Compliance isn't an excuse for assisting China. But what's a few dead, organ-harvested people under the bridge who voiced their opposition to the company town?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
... Microsoft uses it's massive operating system/business software profits to buy it's way into yet another market.
When you deal with the Chinese, sooner or later they will backstab you.
And when you deal with Microsoft, sooner or later they will backstab you.
Who's going to reach for the knife first?
Circumcision is child abuse.
But what's a few dead, organ-harvested people under the bridge who voiced their opposition to the company town?
A business expense.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
So, what exactly have you done to not support Chinese? Do you buy products that have been only made and manufactured in the US, even if its higher price? Do you own iPhone or any other known mobile phone? Does any of your product read Made in China? Instead of blaming Microsoft for doing business with Chinese, what about you taking the first step?
what about you taking the first step?
A good first step might for you to go to China and look for yourself.
It's not the hellhole some people try to portray it as being, and neither are all of it's factories sweatshops.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
This is mostly directed toward the op that decided to write the stories summary...but here goes
I love how your phone is chinese, your clothes are chinese, your kitchen appliances are chinese and your furniture is chinese,
yet you still think after complacently bankrolling what american politicians still insist is a 'communist' state, that you're entitled to
any semblance of a dissenting opinion.
either take a real stand against the arguably communist empire you so openly support, or shut the hell up and buy another TV.
peppering your articles with sensationalist sentament about human rights in china makes no sense otherwise,
and its even more nonsensical when people realize you're american and living under the patriot act.
Good people go to bed earlier.
How many Chinese-language searches do you think you have in the US each day? Would be interesting, too, to see the number of English-language searches in Japan, say, or in Germany.
Most people, the world over, only ever see the part of the net that's in their own language. The idea of the net as a world-wide melting pot is pretty overstated. It's like a large cocktail party where everyone is in the same room, but clustered into separate groups that talk only to each other, mostly ignoring everyone else.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.