Tencent launches "QQ Search"

new Chinese search engine

[bill]

article [pacificepoch.com]

Tencent joined the other Chinese portals and launched its own search engine at www.soso.com [soso.com] recently. According to Sina, Tencent uses Google's technology and may become an Adwords distribution agent for Google. Soso does not have a special name and is called "QQ Search". QQ Search allows searches for web pages, pictures, music, documents, and news.

The SERPs here look very much like Google to me. I'm not certain how much they differ. The layout is very much like any other SE we've seen start up lately. The front end is spartan and the the SERPs are relatively clean (not too much extraneous advertising or fluff to distract the user.)

[Woz]

Hmmm, interesting.

>Soso

Of course, from an English point of view that is a very so-so name. Unfortunate choice, but then it may make more sense in Chinese. Anyone know what it means? (I don't.)

>The SERPs here look very much like Google to me.
Depends on the search I suppose, I tried a couple of my favourite English searches which produced very un-Google like SERPs. Were you searching in Chinese bill?

Onya
Woz

[bill]

Yes, I was looking at Chinese KWs. I didn't think to try English. I saw similar rankings for a few SERPs, but that was not a comprehensive look at all.

I'd be interested to hear what our members in China think about this one. Due to the lack of press on this one I'm doubting this is a very big launch.

[Xuefer]

i can tell from the logo: "sou suo"
search in English
i wonder if they will make some other word.
it was so.qq.com for a long time before soso.com

the result in soso.com is not just "look like" google, but exactly, is. as the cached page and is linking to google.

[stevegpan2]

by accident i have a domain name called so engine, wondering if they stole my thought ;-)

yes the pronunciation of "so" in chinese" means search (but the precise chinese writing will be "sou suo"),
just like the popular engine
sohu.com, which means search fox.

[bill]

Very interesting. Any idea which domain is the primary domain here?

1. [so.qq.com ]
   
2. [soso.com ]

Upon closer inspection I see they're using so.qq.com in the logo itself. Is this just meant to be the search for the massive QQ.com portal or are they really splitting off an independent search arm here?

[redstorm]

anyone find something new in soso? it provides search service for English content exclusively. It's some kind of an innovation. I think. :)

[showsa]

In chinese it means "Search Search"

[lecter]

I came from china. Soso means "search searh", and the chinese character is "搜搜".
QQ is the only IM in china, all chinese use QQ. (in USA, there have many IMs) So, the Tecent company previal the market. Tecent can do what ever he want to do as he have billions of users.
At first, QQ's name is Oicq, and forced to change name to QQ because......
I think there will have a great fight between Soso and Baidu.

[stevegpan2]

<I think there will have a great fight between Soso and Baidu.
>
Does QQ have its own search technology, or it is using someone else's? From the soso web site, it's hard to tell

How is QQ's revenue? Does it have that much cash as Baidu (which gathered a billion from ipo)

[bigcat88]

QQ is a chinese IM and leading IM but not all chinese use QQ. A portion of people uses icq, MSN and Yahoo messenger.

soso means "search" but in English point of view, it is not a good name.

Indeed, the qq search is getting result from google, however, the data center may be different for those in American.

However, I doubt that this search engine will become a major search engines in China region.

The most frequently used search engines in china should be baidu, Google and Yahoo. However,who is the biggest player depends on which region of China. e.g. in Hong Kong, it should be Yahoo

[leunga]

I have several comment on this new SE and QQ.
1. It is slow! It took me 5 seconds to get the page refreshed upon clicking the serach button. The experience is no good at least compared to the real Google.
2. When I do the search on some hot keyword words, there are sponsored links appeared on SEAPs. I am unhappy to see that these sponsored links all appeared at the very top of the page. It is very intrutive to click on the Ads and miss the other search results.
3. My operating system is not a Chinese version one. I tried to install QQ before, but failed due to coding problem. I think QQ used quite extensive among Chinese community. However, I don't think QQ has successfully made it for international use. Perhaps, it is intended.