The Difference Between Baidu and Google

In modern society, the information is overloaded. So the search engines play a crucial role when we use them to get the information. And as we all know, Baidu and Google are two search engine giants. All right, most netizen in China use Baidu to search for information. But others still choose Google, though it needs to link VPN. Why does this phenomenon appear? And what are the differences between two leading search engines -Baidu and Google’s search results? In my opinion, Google’s search results are more reliable and correct. Firstly, I want to compare the search results from selected queries across different search engines. Why I say Google is more reliable? I want to show you some interesting search results to you. For example, if we search the “Lawyer” both in Baidu and Google, we can see the entry by Baidu Baike on the top of website in Baidu Baike and the Wikipedia in Google. So the two are similar in this respect. But when we click through pages, we still find the many difference. Obviously, the Wikipedia is more academic and comprehensive, while there are more commercial advertisements in Baidu Baike.

The research shows that the similarity between them is low. In fact, the research of Baidu’s and Google’s results based on 11,171 queries in China and found the overlap between Baidu and Google was 7. 8% and 3. 9% across the three search engines (Min Jiang,2014, P. 2). The study reports the differences between Google’s and Baidu’s search results in China. It reviews studies of Google’s and Baidu’s search results in China, followed by a summary of four major dimensions of search results research - accessibility, overlap, ranking and bias patterns (Min Jiang,2014, P. 2). And the result is Google cover a more extensive area, including more practical information. So if you want to get some information more reliable, I advise you to use Google. Secondly, let’s talk about the business of search engines. As we all know, there are many advertisements on the search engines. And of course, ads filled with every corner on the Baidu and Google as well. So we want to find out the difference between them. We still use the “Lawyer” as an example. When we search “lawyer” in Baidu, we will see a lot of ads, such as the law firms in Beijing, or some legal consultancy companies in Shanghai. But if we search the same thing by Google, we will find some videos about some accidents or some legal issues. Of course, it also has some ads on the pages, but they are not marked and those valuable ideas are striking and always on the top. Therefore, clearly, the latter is more attractive. In addition, the study also finds Baidu rarely links to its competitors 360 Baike or Chinese Wikipedia, while their presence in Google’s results is much more prominent, raising search bias concerns. Together, these results suggest that search engines can be architecturally altered to arbitrary in rendering social realities and biased toward self-interest.

So, indeed, both of Baidu and Google are commercial in some ways, but obviously, Google can give us a better one. Next, we will focus on the politics. As we all know, over the years, search engines have become increasingly powerful in shaping our information choices and have attracted public scrutiny. Not only is political filtering a high- profile public issue, there is also growing concern that search engines, like legacy media, may exert undue influence through mainstreaming, hyper-commercialism and consolidation (Diaz, 2008, P. 1). The study has empirically examined the political, social and commercial implications of search engines in the Chinese context. Well, why we must link the VPN if you want to use Google in the mainland? That is about the politics. In fact, Google moved its servers from the mainland to Hong Kong, a free speech zone (Min Jiang,2014, P. 2). To some extent, it limited Chinese netizen to get more information about foreign countries. In Google, maybe, you can learn some excellent ideas by a Canadian expert or read the article which was written by a Japanese writer. But in the high probability, we can only find the Chinese persons’ ideas in Baidu’s websites. So what I meaning is Google let us have a more extensive and international vision. We have more opportunities to touch a bigger world as well. Perhaps because of the information sovereignty or other political reasons, this phenomenon occurs. But no matter what, as a Chinese citizen, when we don’t have the ability to change the situations, the one thing we can do is choosing the better one within the law. So nowadays, Web search has become a basic economic and social utility in the information society, popularly viewed as objective, complete and even divine. And their impact on Chinese users and society play an important role. We compared the differences between the Baidu and Google’s search results in this essay and there is little overlap or ranking similarity between Baidu’s and Google’s results. Moreover, the study results imply different search engines, different results and different social realities. Although I recommend Google personally, I still believe that Baidu will improve it service a lot in the near future.