When We Talk About Baidu, What Do We Say?

In ‘07 I got my first QQ, but instead of using Qzone, I wrote on Baidu Space. Baidu Space was my first blog. Back then Baidu Space was still relatively pure—it didn’t ask you to update your avatar every time you logged in, and few people sent spam through Baidu Space. It was easy to find people with similar interests or alumni there. I used this space until ‘09, made some friends, and had one annoying harassment incident. Because I didn’t pay much attention to my personal information, I put my private QQ on there and a girl added me. From then on began my week-long nightmare. In the end I couldn’t take it anymore—block! Blocking is the move I hate doing the most. It’s too cruel. After that, I applied for another QQ—the one currently shown on the About page—specifically for communicating with net friends, strangers, and alumni I’d never met. No pressure at all.

After starting my blog, considering that the same article couldn’t be posted on Baidu Space (otherwise Baidu would think I was plagiarizing from Baidu Space), I basically gave up updating Baidu Space. But because of a few popular articles, my space’s visit count has hardly decreased. Probably tomorrow my Baidu Space visit count will exceed 50,000. Compared to Baidu celebrity Yue Xiaobei, it’s nothing, but this visit count is still pretty good. It’d be nice if I could add ads to Baidu Space—maybe earn a few yuan, and Baidu Space’s popularity would increase a lot. At least those bloggers who think they can make money would take root there. Yue Xiaobei closed her space today. She said she couldn’t stand Baidu Space’s awkward revision done out of envy for other spaces, and the constant avatar update prompts every time she logged into the space backend. I can’t stand that either—why should I have to put my real information on Baidu facing netizens nationwide? Who can guarantee that everyone online is normal! But Yue Xiaobei’s space had one or two million visits. No matter how you look at it, that’s money. Closing it like this seems a bit wasteful. I won’t close my space. I’ll continue maintaining its popularity because I’m eyeing Baidu Search’s friendly attitude toward my space. Making good use of it is also a promotion channel.

Baidu is a bit stupid. In ‘09 they completely shut down university tiebas. In ‘10 they relaunched a “completely revised” university tieba: “The new university tieba is divided by class units. Creating and joining classes uses real-name registration. While ensuring personal privacy and security, it provides you and your classmates with a more intimate and harmonious communication space.” This irresponsible behavior literally confines everyone to their own class, and you need real names to create a class. The previously somewhat free big family is completely gone. Even an idiot knows this won’t bring any benefit to Baidu, yet Baidu still did it.