Baidu Facelifts its Android App Catalog, Brings Maps into the Browser

Baidu's facelifted Android app catalog web app. Click to enlarge.

Baidu has been big on its mobile apps recently, with a host of speedy updates to its downloadable Android apps. And now we have some new web apps as well – a facelifted version of its Android app store (which we reviewed back in July), and a brand-new Maps web app that works in most smartphone browsers.

The Baidu mobile Android app catalog – at m.baidu.com/app (pictured above) – now comes with a revamped and an expanded repository of apps. Baidu is now working with seven independent Android apps stores – including some of the alternative app sources I outlined last week – so it can boast over 100,000 apps. The web app now features autocorrect to help Chinese users find some oddly-named apps and games.

The Baidu Maps mobile web app (pictured below) brings the company’s mapping product into most mobile browsers for the first time – previously it suggested you go download the actual app. It incorporates local information, to search for nearby venues such as restaurants or hospitals, and looks great in the standard Android browser. Despite the company’s dominance in search, it’s actually Google Maps that remains the nation’s favourite, by a massive 43 percent margin of market share.

Baidu's new browser-based Maps web app.

Although the Chinese search engine giant now has its own mobile platform/OS – the Android-based Baidu Yi – it still wants and needs to serve the tens of millions of other smartphone-toting Chinese, who are mostly on iOS, Android, and Symbian devices.

[Source for app catalog revamp news: QQ Tech – article in Chinese]