Baidu, China’s largest online search company, yesterday launched a search-able applications library which allows third-party offerings in the library to launch directly on Baidu rather than on another website, providing a potential revenue boost for the company.
When a user searches for a specific online game, for example, the new function launches the game immediately without the user leaving the Baidu site. That is different from what happens traditionally when users get a search result consisting of a block of text and a link to another website.
The move, combining the idea of an applications store and a search engine, is a rare example of pioneering by the Chinese company. Other search engines do not yet have such a function.