In fact, I don't remember when I first learned about the search engine Baidu. However, I still vaguely remember that when I interviewed Li Yanhong many years ago, there was such a plot: Baidu was just established, and Li Yanhong went to give a speech to a university student. He asked the students, do any of you know Baidu? Everyone looked at each other and said that they had no idea who Baidu was. A few years later, Li Yanhong went to give a speech to the students in that university. He asked again, has anyone used Baidu? No one answered.

When writing this article, I spent a long time looking for this report, but I still couldn't find it. I can't remember whether it was an interview or a documentary, but the story left a deep impression on me.

In just a few years, the phrase "Baidu, you will know" seems to become a household name overnight. When you don't know something, someone will even make fun of you with this slogan. If someone says "Taobao", you must know that this word means online shopping; Someone says "QQ", you must understand what he means by chatting online; Similarly, "Baidu" has become the spokesman of China people's search. Even people who never surf the Internet will know the word "Baidu". This shows the importance of search engines to Internet users.

Baidu empire

Baidu originated from a search engine, and its roots have penetrated into every aspect of our lives. Perhaps in the process of using Internet products, you have become a Baidu user.

The picture shows Baidu products. Count carefully how much you have used.

Dark edge

Any company of "BAT" can be considered as an entrepreneurial legend, but only Baidu has gone further and further on the road of "public enemy of the whole people". In the years when Baidu started its business, they paid enough attention to technology and gave product managers and programmers enough room for development. Many people became famous because of Baidu World War I, and they changed from poor boy to Gao Fushuai overnight. Even cleaning auntie has shares in the company.

In the days when Google left, I really miss that "simple" Baidu. Sometimes I wonder, what makes Baidu what it is now? Perhaps Baidu's shareholders are not satisfied with the conservative business model and ordered the product manager to add the function of "bidding ranking" to search.

I believe that no product manager is willing to add such a business module that affects the user experience to his proud product, but if he doesn't do it, others will do it. To sum up, you should do what shareholders want, or you will be fired.

The factory director said that Baidu will not make a profit in the first few years, because this extreme is a "paving" process. The search engine was perfect, and Baidu began to commercialize after completing the process of "Carp yue longmen".

Let's compare the search results of several search engines for the keyword "cosmetic surgery".

Baidu: My computer has a 15.6-inch screen. I can't see anything valuable on the first page. Official website from all plastic surgery hospitals.

Google: There are almost no advertisements in the search results, which is more in line with users' expectations of the search results.

I don't know much about the process of commercialization, but I think that any company with a long-term vision will not do such a dirty thing as Baidu.

As a giant Internet company with hundreds of millions of users, it should not only do such things, but also have a strong sense of social responsibility, similar to the responsibility of the state to the people. Search engine is the gateway for netizens to enter the Internet. As a search engine service provider, Baidu should help users screen and identify useful content from the perspective of users, and should defend the purity of users' information sources instead of "doing evil" on its own site.

I believe that Baidu executives are smart people, and they should all know what "sustainable development" means. But perhaps it is because they are too smart to put this intelligence into commercialization, thus losing their good intentions. Similarly, I also believe that all users are smart people. They may be forced for a while, which may increase the traffic of the website, but when they find that you are lying to them, they will not hesitate to leave. The loss of high-quality users is a great loss for enterprises, which is equivalent to shaking the foundation of the company.

Is Baidu really out of products?

The answer is yes.

abstract

Let's talk about it in my personal usage habits. If you can use Google, you can use Google. If not, you can use Bing. Although I have been using Baidu input method for several years, I recently decided to change sogou input method.

To tell the truth, I'm actually afraid of Baidu's whole family bucket, just like I'm afraid of 360 whole family bucket.

I don't know what will happen if this article is sent out, but I still hope that everyone will stay away from Baidu. Well, I'm super serious.