China's Most "Googled" Phrases

Seeing China's list of most Googled phrases shows just how unimportant Google is to Chinese people.

From PC World:

YouTube? No. Facebook? Nope. Yahoo, eBay, MySpace? No, no and no.

The only U.S. name to make Google's 2008 most popular keyword search list for China was NBA (National Basketball Association), at No. 10. In fact, the NBA was the only non-Internet company to make the list, with the others all popular Chinese sites for news, videos, file sharing and more.

If Google's top keyword search list for China in 2008 can be considered a guide, U.S. Internet companies continue to be stymied by Chinese Web firms.

Google itself is an also-ran in China's Internet search market, where Baidu.com reigns supreme with around 65 percent of all searches in China at the end of the second quarter.

Still, Google's 2008 most-searched lists make for an interesting look into what China's Internet users are viewing.

The most popular search on Google in China during 2008 was for Sina, one of the most popular portals in the country. Another portal, Netease, came in second. The online auction site Taobao, which is owned by Alibaba.com, took third, while video-sharing sites Youku and Tudou, placed fourth and fifth, respectively.

Read On

Google took an absolute beating a few years ago when it decided to censor itself for China. Maybe the huge loss of face Google took for that action wasn't even worth the trouble.

I'm being a bit facetious here. I'm so thankful that Google is available to me here. But as a whole, China has not embraced Google.

Baidu is China's Google equivalent and is dominating the Chinese search market.