back to article Microsoft inks Bing deal with Baidu

China-based Baidu has reportedly inked an English-language search agreement with Microsoft's Bing. According to Reuters, the search deal will help Baidu improve its market presence outside of China, while Microsoft hopes to beef up its online footfall in the People's Republic. Baidu is the leading search engine in China. In …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Baidu - Bing

    baidu-bing, baidu-bing, baidu baidu, baidu-bing

    they sleep with the fishes

  2. paulc
    WTF?

    people still use Bing???

    anyone with any clue doesn't use it unless forced to by their phone provider or else hasn't got a clue...

    Bing... the search engine so bad that Microsoft have to pay people to use it...

    1. Sir Cosmo Bonsor

      Have you even seen Google recently?

      It's a complete dog's dinner. Anything but that.

  3. drunk.smile

    Patriot Act

    I wonder how the Chinese authorities are viewing Microsoft's patriot act statment?

  4. Solomon Grundy

    I Like Bing

    The Chinese called Google a tool.

    1. dssf

      Google is a "tool"?

      Wait 'til we find out in 2 years that ms facilitated the People's Party rounding up political dissidents who hid messages in steganography embedded in English font...

      Then, we'll see who the REAL tool is. Google refused to play ball in rounding up people, didn't it? Now, ms suddenly has a HUGE deal? IT is the tool here. But, ms will shiftily and two-facedly be playing the US and China off on each other as the US tries to glean possible turncoats in China while China plays ms off on the US.

      Talk about a ménage à trois... hahahaha

      They'll all be faux gras-ing each others' throats, gagging all the way through to the ban(g)k.. hehehehe, as they serially and surreally and sir REALLY en(d)force an agog gag order on each other

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Microsoft and China have a lot in common.

    Except of course that Microsoft's slaves are richer.

  6. Mikel
    Thumb Up

    A match made in heaven

    They deserve each other.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bing just keeps on growing!

    All you MS haters and Googlephiles must not believe your eyes. Bing keeps inching forward, Windows 7 is huge, Windows 8 is on track for early release, Windows Phone 7 has gotten a good reception and is poised for much more growth. Microsoft is back! Before long there might even be a positive Microsoft spin to a story on The Register!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Are you paid?

      Remember this article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/23/fake_reviews/? Your comment stinks of this.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        Re: Are you paid?

        No he is not.

        However, you have had your sarcasm detection gland recently removed.

        That's for sure.

        1. Robert E A Harvey
          Paris Hilton

          ...sarcasm detection gland recently removed.

          I must be getting old. He fooled me.

          <-- easily fooled

    2. Robert E A Harvey

      Positive?

      Your W7 example is hilarious. I'm surprised you didn't quote Zune! The easiest way to get positive spin in a story is to make something good, at a sensible price, and stop treating users like thieves and pirates.

      If that hurts too much, then just use published file formats instead of propitiatory ones.

      (Oh look, I'm answering you as though you ARE microsoft. No idea why I came to that conclusion!)

    3. Kay Burley ate my hamster
      FAIL

      How Bing grows

      First they tried paying people, that didn't work.

      Then they made it the default search, people changed it back.

      Then they made a phone OS and locked the search to Bing.

      Now they sign an exclusive English language search deal with the only real player in a dictatorship!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Irony?

    So on July 4th - the day when America celebrates its independence from it's oppressive colonial masters Microsoft announce that they are firming up their ties with a regime that advocates censorship and the use of violence to suppress dissident voices.

    Way to go Microsoft...

    1. dssf
      Devil

      Celebrating Independence? Bahhh...

      They're cell-abrading mucosal END-DEPENDENCE... it's getting awfully smelly in the air...

  9. Kay Burley ate my hamster
    Devil

    I'm sure

    Microsoft will have no problems with censoring images of Tiananmen Square.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Exactly what is expected from Reg readers.

    Thanks guys....you all responded exactly the way rabid readers of an anti-Microsoft Tech Tabloid would be expected to respond. You guys just keep on stroking each other while Microsoft continues to regain relevance and it's stock price starts once again keeping pace with it's hefty profits. I just hope the US gives them a little break so they can affordably bring the bulk of the war chest back to the US so it doesn't get wasted in Europe. They can refill the chest with the money they collect from next year's Nokia bonanza. Oh...and just in case you don't know how to spell Skype.... it's heretofore to be spelled $kype in any Reg posts and "articles."

  11. ratfox
    Trollface

    Poor Baidu

    It was doing so well... But now that they have allied with Microsoft, they are obviously doomed.

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      wondering

      I am in two minds about which half of this deal is the evil overlord, and which the toadying minion.

  12. JDX Gold badge

    have to wonder...

    how many of the Bing haters have actually used it, rather than tried it once

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You mean like...

      ... heroin?

    2. Robert E A Harvey

      Miss! me miss!

      they borg'd multimap, so for a while I was using it to cursor a point on the map & read off the lat/long & OSgrid co-ordinates.

      Then they removed this useful feature.

      Quite interesting to try to do high-accuracy positioning with these satellite images, from both systems. Last time I looked google maps and bing were usually around 5 to 15m different from the printed OS sheet, although which was closer varied. I suspect they use different methods of 'stretching' the pictures to fit known co-ordinates - mostly GIS roads as far as I can see. And I think the underlying mapping is different. There will also be rounding errors, & an error caused by the pixel/selection resolution sampling error. They all seem to use WGS84 for the roads & transverse mercator for the images, but instead of the 'standard' 3 degree interval for central meridians, I think they generate one for each photo image. If they were really clever they would use inclined mercator along the photography track, but I suspect the images are squared up and projected before they get them.

      For armchair archaeology, you need both Bong and Gurgle, and I wish one or the other would let you do a time-lapse of different source images for the same spot.

      For searching I prefer iXquick & alpha to both of them. And streetmap.co.uk for reading off coordinates. But bing does have an OSGB layer which google lacks, probably inherited from multimap.

  13. Mikel
    Stop

    RE: Poor Baidu

    @Ratfox - Normally I would say the same thing. Microsoft does normally work this way.

    Unfortunately for Microsoft, China definitely does not work this way. The endgame requires a framework of courts and laws to support their faustian bargain to the detriment of their "partner". China is just not going to let that happen. China needs Baidu more than they need Microsoft. Microsoft does not have the wherewithal to knife this particular baby.

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