Baidu Launches “Share” Beta in Search Results

Baidu search results with Share integration, via China Internet Watch

Earlier today, the folks at China Internet Watch spotted an interesting thing in some of Baidu’s (NASDAQ:BIDU) search results — they had a thumbs-up logo and a number next to them. It actually looks very similar to Facebook’s “Like” feature, although it is also being compared with Google’s implementation of the Google Plus +1 button in its search results for obvious reasons.

It turns out that Baidu is beta testing integration of its Baidu Share social bookmarking service with its search results. The number listed next to the thumbs-up indicates the number of times a link has been shared on Baidu Share. For the moment, the implementation seems to be quite limited — China Internet Watch noted that they could only find the feature in the results for search terms about search engines like “Baidu” or “Google” — but according to an official Baidu presser from yesterday, this is just a beta test, so it’s likely that we’ll see an expansion of this functionality in the future.

It’s worth noting that although this is the first time the Share button has appeared directly in search results on Baidu, it has been appearing next to some of the company’s “box computing” results for the past month or so. For example, a search for “360Buy Customer Service” returns a box computing result displaying the correct phone number in large text, and that result has had a Share button next to it for some time now.

The fact that Baidu is expanding this service with an official beta in search results is probably evidence it is looking to build up the Baidu Share social bookmarking service. Perhaps coincidentally, this is happening at the same time Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is also integrating its Plus social features into search results. With regards to competition between the two services here in Asia, a Google spokesperson told us:

Competition in search is great for users. We innovate rapidly to make sure people keep choosing Google, and in the end that means consumers have a better search experience.

Of course, Baidu dominates Google in China — not a big surprise given that Google doesn’t operate a PRC version of its search engine anymore. Anyway, it looks like no matter what your favorite search engine is, it’s time for you to get ready for a dose of social in your search results. It’s clearly coming, you might as well get used to it.