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Chinese web giant Baidu has unveiled Light App – a new distribution model for mobile applications which could eventually help international developers to better promote their wares in the world’s biggest smartphone market. Unveiled at the firm’s annual Baidu World event on Thursday, the new system was conceived as a way for …

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  1. Cliff

    What is it?

    Are the apps just run server side in which case the currency exchange and similar apps could simply be calculated by Baidu directly? Much like Google does if you ask it certain questions? Or are these maybe the equivalent of HTML5 apps that just skin a web service? I'm not clear from the article exactly what the proposal/offering/newsworthy thing is?!

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    1. Gordon Pryra
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      Re: What is it?

      Looking at their developer page and it seems like its just access to their API allowing you to create custom searches on Baidu.

      Yes I would call anything that comes out the end of this a "light app", an "incredibly fucking light app".....

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  3. Nifty Silver badge

    Is innovation going over to the East?

    While Western cos are locked into counter-patent and turf wars, it seems the Chinese are just getting on with innovating in this space.

    Look at WeChat - which in my mind replaces MSN Messenger very nicely since the MSN-Skype omelette was cooked up to clog up my phone. WeChat now has walkie-talkie style Voicemail messaging and a neat multi-browser Web app for Windows/Macs.

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    1. Armando 123
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      Re: Is innovation going over to the East?

      Possibly, but there are differences in marekts, economies, and "culture" (not the right word, maybe "weltanschauung" is better). China was technologically WAY ahead of the west a thousand years ago. But it was more sparks of light in the dark rather than a building of light, so that by 1500, European cannon could threaten the Chinese coast.

      Innovation is important, but it's not everything you need for advancement.

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  4. Gordon Pryra

    Innovation?

    I see no innovation here, just an list of pre-approved ways for people to display search results from Baidu on a handset.

    Rather than any innovation they are trying to reduce the amount of crap calls to themselves from idiot "programmers"

    Not sure why there's the big fan fair, unless things have become so dumbed down since my day that this actually counts as some form of innovation in the world of cut-n-past html jockeys.

    Maybe my day rate is rising the older I get, not because I am getting better, but because (as I suspect) with OS's designed to be run by idiots no one actually gets deep down and dirty anymore and the kids coming into the industry stand no chance of learning what used to be required.

    Some basic logic and how a bit of code actually works on a computer would be a great start......

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