Baidu Launches People Powered Search

Written by Luyi Chen on August 1, 2007
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Baidu started testing a voice-based search service half a month ago. To use the service, simply call 11616690. There’s no voice recognition involved in the process. Instead a real human is going to serve you. The service is free of charge except the normal phone cost.

Who will use the service? Most probably it will be people on the way without a computer in his hand. The most suitable questions would be those have a definite answer.

The service is competing directly with those 114 extension services from traditional carrier like China Telecom. And this is also an alternative to those mobile search like Minfo. The difference is also clear, as noted by sleet. People powered search isn’t suitable for those problems requiring deep analysis, and it’s limited by the ability of the person serving you.

If you have really tested the service, please write down your experience. We will link to you, like this one.

Update: Bigheadx asked question about restaurant. Kenengba recorded two audio of the service.

Update Aug. 3: Danwei tried the service. In theory, you can ask any question without being in trouble.

4 Responses to “Baidu Launches People Powered Search”

  1. Darren.Fu on August 2nd, 2007 12:48 pm

    would”human powered search” be a better translation of “语音搜索”?

  2. tungwen on August 3rd, 2007 7:19 pm

    人工搜索 is better.

  3. Link Pagerank on August 6th, 2007 1:01 am

    I think this is a great initiative. I am convinced that in some cases a human can never be beaten by a machine or computer. Especially when an interaction is possible.

  4. Voice Matters: Baidu Launches Voice Search, QQ Voice Mail Follows : China Web2.0 Review on March 6th, 2008 2:54 pm

    [...] Today Baidu’s voice search formally launched, not available for registration though. This is not news if you are an old reader. We first reported it in last August. Now it seems Baidu finally made the decision on how to operate the service. [...]

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