HP to preload Baidu search engine

Users of HP Pavilion and HP Presario series computers will find themselves invited to "Baidu their trouble." Not only will Baidu be embedded into the HP's copy of Internet Explorer, there'll be a dedicated Baidu key, too.

"The trend of individualisation is spreading quickly through the entire IT industry," claimed Wee Kee Yeo, a director of the consumer PC Division, with HP China.

The reality is that China is fast becoming a major battleground between HP, the number two vendor and top PC vendor, Dell.

This move follows the news that Google has struck a deal with Baidu's arch rival, Google, to put the Google search bar onto the PCs it ships.

Feeding the search string 'The Inquirer' into the Baidu search engine quite correctly takes you straight to the INQ's home page. You wouldn't want to go anywhere else, would you? µ

L'INQ
Baidu