Google is a search engine used by billions of people worldwide. But what about Baidu? What’s the difference between these two search engines, and why should you care? Here’s an overview to help you decide which one is right for you.
The Basics
Baidu is a search engine created by Baidu Operating System, which uses Google’s algorithm. It is the leading search engine in China since Chinese authorities have banned Google in China.
Google is a multinational public company specializing in Internet-related services and products, including online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software, and hardware.
The Main Differences
Baidu and Google both provide related and relevant links to the user’s query.
But there are basic differences:
- Baidu is a search engine specialized in finding information about OS and its tools, written in Baidu Operating System;
- It can’t load URLs with “HTTPS” protocol or those containing “PHP,” “CGI,” etc.;
- Google can locate URLs with such protocols and load them. Another reason is that Google has a higher rank than Baidu does (about 12 million for google and 400000 for Baidu – as we know, the bigger the number of links to a page, the better it ranks).
Privacy Policy
The operating system built by Baidu has a privacy policy that promises users that all information is encrypted and anonymous. In case you’re wondering if this applies to searches, the answer is no. Any searches performed on Baidu are sent directly to Google’s servers to generate results for your query.
Google states in their privacy policy that when you use their services or view content provided by third-party using embedded frames, they may place web beacons and cookies in your browser. These can enable Google to track certain information about you such as IP address, time of visit, whether you are logged into their services like Gmail or not, etc.
Interface and Functionality
Baidu’s interface is somehow inspired by google. It has all of Google’s core features like translation tools, image search, maps, and news, but not everything works exactly as it usually does on Google. For example, sometimes searching for images through Baidu will list random images from Google’s team, not those you were looking for.
Google’s interface has been described as “remarkably clean and simple,” which keeps on updating from time to time. The page layout has remained mostly unchanged since then, except for a couple of minor updates here and there.
Location Tracking
This is one of the most significant differences between Baidu and Google. As its name implies, this search engine doesn’t track your location, which means that results are not based on your local time zone. On the other hand, Google tracks your IP address to serve localized search results for any location.
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