Chinese web researcher Hu Yanping has indicated there are rumors that authorities will ban Chinese search engines such as Baidu from indexing real-time search results from the country’s Twitter-like Weibo sites, such as Sina Weibo.
Tests today on Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) show that the feature is still in operation, with certain trending terms appearing in the form of three microblog tweets on the Baidu first page of results (pictured above). The incorporation of microblogs in Baidu is a relatively new phenomenon, with support for Sina Weibo and then Tencent Weibo added just last month.
In a tweet on Mr. Hu’s verified account (see it here), the founder of analysts DCCI says that Baidu – and presumably other locally-operating search engines, from Microsoft’s Bing to state-run Jike – will have to put a stop to this. In translation, he said:
Hu Yanping's microblog post on this rumor. Click to enlarge.
Baidu’s and Sina’s short honeymoon is over? A rumor: relevant departments say that search engines must stop indexing microblog content. But can this sort of block stop the dissemination of information?
By “information,” we feel that he means rumors, and that this is part of the ongoing war on rumors being waged by authorities who feel that loose lips sink ships could stir up dissent, especially where the gossip – and inconvenient news – touches on political issues, whether it’s the ongoing Bo Xilai scandal or endemic corruption in general.
A more likely scenario is that Baidu and other search engines would have to screen the kind of Weibo trends that appear in their results more carefully. Although we’d be surprised if this were not happening already.
We’ve reached out to Baidu on this issue, but no-one was immediately available to comment.