Baidu zeitgeist / hot search trends – some interesting observations

July 24th, 2008

Baidu is currently the most popular search engine in China. Many of their products and services are similar to Google. Like Google, they also have a zeitgeist / search trends service which shows the current top search queries. It’s interesting to see what people are searching for in the Chinese Internet -

The #1 fastest rising search phrase is “什锦八宝饭”: It is literally the name of a sweet, glutinous rice dish in China. However, entering this phrase into Baidu’s image search reveals its true meaning – plenty of pictures of President Hu and Premier Wen appear! Apparently, this phrase is currently used to describe fans of these two Chinese leaders. The #2 and #3 top rising queries are:

• “Pangu Plaza”: a high-end apartment residence next to the Olympics Stadiums where Bill Gates is rumored to be staying
• “Jinan Torch Relay Live Broadcast”: the Olympic torch relay recently passed through this city

The top 5 search queries are:

1. qq - the most popular Chinese instant messaging application
2. You Ku – a video sharing site, like YouTube
3. Tu Dou Wang – another video sharing site
4. Xun Lei – a BitTorrent downloading / file sharing client
5. Chi Bi – a popular Chinese movie that’s currently in the theatres

They also have top ten lists for beautiful women (Baidu image search currently shows several nude pictures of the top ranked lady - odd, I thought such pictures are censored), television dramas, games, movies, books, famous people, universities, cars (the top 5 are: Chery QQ, Mazda 6, Honda Fit, Honda Civic, Roewe 550), tourist attractions, etc.

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Entry Filed under: Internet