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The Internet Businesses Google

China Launches New Search Engine 433

Posted by michael from the if-you-find-it,-they-will-come dept.
stupidfoo writes "With all those nasty pro-democracy websites that Google keeps turning up, what's a communist country supposed to do? Well, create their own search engine of course! According to the AP, 'Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc.' Accoona Corp. was one of the Chinese companies that donated an 'undisclosed amount' to the recently opened Clinton Library. Using the search engine from inside the US doesn't show any noticeable amount of censorship, but it also doesn't show how it's anywhere near the level of Google."
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China Launches New Search Engine More

China Launches New Search Engine

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  • Latency (Score:3, Informative)

    by techsoldaten ( 309296 ) * on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @02:59PM (#11021477) Journal
    Kathy Feaganes Allen is the lady from Florida who ran down a couple of teenagers for letting their golf ball hit her SUV. Compelling story, something that I really want to know about.

    No mention of it on Accoona at all, plenty on Google.

    'Nuff said.

    M

    • Re:Latency (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SIGALRM ( 784769 ) *
      The deal gives Accoona data on some 5 million Chinese companies, which Accoona sees as a lucrative opportunity as U.S. businesses seek to do business in China
      Although I seriously doubt the folks at Google are shuddering over this new "rival", you can't overlook the potential benefit to American companies who are looking to do business in the world's largest consumer market.

      • Re:Latency (Score:4, Insightful)

        by stupidfoo ( 836212 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:03PM (#11021551)
        American companies who are looking to do business in the world's largest consumer market.

        America is the world's largest consumer market. China merely has the most people.

        • Re:Latency (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Steve Embalmer ( 783552 )
          America is the world's largest consumer market

          Only in terms of actual dollars spent per capita. China has *BY FAR* the fastest growing consumer growth in spending in the world. You can't ignore 1.3 billion people who have increased discretionary spending who wanna buy stuff.
          • Not just per capita, largest outright. Now China's IS growing much faster, but that doesn't mean it is the largest NOW, it means it may (probably will...) become the largest at some point in the future.
          • ---
            Only in terms of actual dollars spent per capita.
            ---

            Since this is THE definition of the size of a consumer market, what was your point again? Other than trying to pain a brutal Communist dictatorship as some sort of Utopia, that is?

      • Re:Latency (Score:3, Interesting)

        by techsoldaten ( 309296 ) *
        No doubt.

        Then again, my company is not looking to do business with China. What real use does a tiny search engine have for me right now? (Not to mention the Chinese state probably censors the thing.)

        For the present, I will stick with the tried and least-untrustworthy solution.

        M

      • Re:Latency (Score:5, Informative)

        by Rei ( 128717 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:14PM (#11021757) Homepage
        Thanks for pointing out this basic fact: Accoona is developed by a *US COMPANY* that simply does a lot of business with China. The header remark:

        "Accoona Corp. was one of the Chinese companies that donated an 'undisclosed amount' to the recently opened Clinton Library." ... is completely wrong. Accoona was developed by China Communication Corp of Hoboken, New Jersey. Last I checked, New Jersey isn't in China. Do a whois on accoona.com, also - it's adminstrative contract, its technical contact, everything is in New Jersey.

        Blah. I'll bugger off now and let this thread turn to Clinton bashing, as the article submitter was undoubtedly intending.
      • Although I seriously doubt the folks at Google are shuddering over this new "rival", you can't overlook the potential benefit to American companies who are looking to do business in the world's largest consumer market.

        Nike being a prime example - it's also quite difficult when the Chinese government decides to ban Nike Commercials [go.com] because having Lebron James defeating cartoons of "a kung fu master, two women in traditional Chinese attire and a pair of dragons", were all "insulting" to their country's imag

  • dbarbour.com (Score:2, Redundant)

    by dustinbarbour ( 721795 )

    dbarbour.com is my personal website. Google has it ranked on the first page when you query my name, Dustin Barbour. Accoona doesn't even know it exists.

    That's all the convincing I need to stay with Google.

  • Things the Clinton Search Engine finds fast: (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Knee Pads
    Intern Job Listings
    Porn
    Cigars
    Directions to the Clinton Library and Massage Parlor in Little Rock
    Rose Law Firm Records
    Cattle Future Stock Quotes
    • Guestbook at Clinton's Library [nationalreview.com]

      Bill Justen, West Memphis, Tenn.:

      Pretty good, I guess. But my feeling is, if you're going to sell cigars in the gift shop, you should be able to smoke them, too. I bought a pretty pricey smoke and wanted to enjoy it as I strolled along the Avenue of the Stars, and I was told in no uncertain terms that smoking was not permitted. When I asked why cigars are sold in the gift shop, I was told that these cigars aren't "the smoking kind." Am I missing something? P.S.: The Sharon

  • Cataloguing latency? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by eln ( 21727 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:01PM (#11021507)
    How much of the difference in quality results has to do with the fact that Google has a huge head start in indexing the web? Maybe Acoona's results will improve over time?

    • ...better results than Google Inc.

      ...doesn't show how it's anywhere near the level of Google.

      I guess it depends on how one defines "better". Perhaps "better" in this case means "omits a lot of pesky political stuff that no searcher really wants to hear about".

  • Oh my god! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Spock the Vulcan ( 196989 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:01PM (#11021518)
    We slashdotted China!

    We bastards!

    • Re:Oh my god! (slashdotted it) (Score:5, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:14PM (#11021750) Journal
      Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google

      Perhaps they focused so much on "better than Google" that they forget to load-test it? AI software is not known for speed. Right now it is probably thinking:

      "Hmmmm. 8000% more requests than I can handle? Should I lock up? Just process the first one? Let's check the rules database. Wup, that's flooded also. This flow-chart from Bob may offer a clue. It has heuristics prepared by somebody in a similar situation. Okay, it says, "call Mom". Okay.....what? I have no Mom? Hmmmm. Now why don't I have a Mom? Let's go research that....."

  • doesn't seem so bad (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JeanBaptiste ( 537955 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:02PM (#11021528)
    free tibet [accoona.com] still gets plenty of hits....

    even falun gong [accoona.com] gets plenty of hits back.

    Once I get off work im gonna have to anonymous proxy inside china and try it.
  • It not only dispenses only happy news articles about China, it also makes sure that you only see articles that are appropriate.

    If you are found searching for inappropriate terms, you will be visited by a reeducation specialist who will diagnose your condition and recommend appropriate treatment.

    This is for your own protection. Only people that are ill would be interested in things that are not good for them. Thus, by tracking people with this illness and fixing them, we are making a better China!
  • Guess he is just thanking the Chinese for all of those funds he rec'd, democracy be damned.
  • Go China!
  • The third link on the list was http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/ [victimsofcommunism.org]


    I think this means that it still needs some work.

  • How Accoona is Better Than Google (Score:5, Funny)

    by bigtallmofo ( 695287 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:03PM (#11021552)
    According to a Chinese government spokesperson, "Accoona is a more efficient search engine because while Google uses automated system applications to crawl the Internet and add to their databse, we have assigned 481.2 million Chinese citizens the task of manually surfing the Internet and cataloging every site by hand. They work faster and far cheaper than Google's automated software."

    There you have it.
  • What did I get? I got a bunch of ads for game retailers, not reviews or fan sites showing up at the top of the list. It sucks, but what should I have expected from China and Bill Clinton?
    • So what you're saying is it's just like Google. It's pretty much impossible to get any results for any product on any search engine, including Google, these days, where the first 10 pages aren't just ads for the product.
  • This is obviously part of China's oppressive "great firewall of China". Its disappointing to see Clinton involved in something like this. While I know he made it a point in his administration to maintain good relations with China, this kind of encouragement of their censorship activities shouldn't happen.

    Damn - why's he gotta keep smearing my old '90s rose-coloured-glasses?
    • There ought to be some watchdog group that picks out companies that are willing to actively thwart basic human rights and democratic freedoms in other countries in the pursuit of a quick buck, and organizes boycotts and divestment campaigns against them. I'd say there should be legal provisions against them too, but I know those laws would be heavily misapplied.
    • We've got to be friends with them, or we'll be enemies. Clinton knows that the Right in the US would love to demonize China, especially once we run out of middle eastern countries again. So he pre-empts that by publicly cooperating with them. So what if they've violated international human rights agreements? If we hate them for that we'd better stop turning our eyes from our own self-abuse. All large organizations prey on the populace, governments included, the US government included. Clinton is as sh
  • This isn't too surprising. Bill Clinton sold China our multi-stage missile technology for satellite launching. China is using this to build ICBMs to target the western United States. (And have since threatened to hit Los Angeles with a nuclear warhead if we ever interfere in regards to our ally Taiwan.) This was after he received numerous under the table donations for his campaign from the Chinese government and financiers. After he sold out our national security to the Chinese for some campaign donation

  • WTFometer pegged. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:04PM (#11021585)
    > Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc.

    I'm sorry, I just wanted to re-read that sentence in all its glory. And to pound my head on the desk every fourth or fifth word. I've discovered that the mental imagery starts to look more coherent if you soak the brain in at least three beers' worth of alcohol before applying the blunt force trauma.

    On the bright side, if Fark ever holds a "Photoshop this Salvador Dali Masterpiece" contest, that sentence is gonna make me a surefire winner.

  • Accoona Matata?

  • Search for "tiananmen square" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by closms ( 168085 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:07PM (#11021651)
    Maybe there is something to this.

    A search for tiananmen square on Accoona reveals mostly "Travel China" sites, although it does show the National Association for Democracy page as the 11th hit.

    A search for tiananmen square on Google finds sites like "student protests", "history declassified" and the wikipedia page.

    Hmmm, maybe there is something to this conspiracy theory.
  • I have been throwing some very general queries of things I am interested in. Google returns results with information, acoona search tends to return results for where you can buy something.

    We already have those search engines, they are prolific and generally suck.

    I used "Battletech" and "Half Life" as searches, you can see the massive difference.

    Google returns with classicbattletech.com, and patrics battletech archive. Though it does return fasa.com, though this actually shows the strength of google, si
  • Miserable Failure [accoona.com]

    Doesn't show President Bush's Website, Michael Moore Website or Jimmy Carters Website. Come on now, what type of search engine doesn't allow you to spam the results.

  • http://www.accoona.com/search?col=mc&qt=google [accoona.com]

    Does anyone else find it weird that searching up 'google' comes up with nothing useful on Accoona? Given that Google is one of the most popular sites on the web and it's chief competitor, I find this very suspicious. Either the engine is completely useless or we're definitely seeing censorship at work. The Chinese would have to be idiots to think this is a "real" search engine.

  • Just for fun, I decided to search on flaws of communism, just before Accoona got slashdotted. Very few, if any, of the search results mentioned "flaws" in the title or summary, and the third or fourth result was actually a communist party homepage. Google, on the other hand, produces relevant documents right off the bat, in America, at least. (Sorry for the imprecision, I closed the window before deciding to post this, and couldn't get in to research.)

  • In Communist China (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anubis333 ( 103791 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:10PM (#11021700) Homepage
    You search for democracy,
    and engine finds you.
  • The kind of engine that searches YOU...

    you know, in Communist China

  • A case of "Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity".

    McDermott, D. Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity.
    In Mind Design: Philosophy, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence (ed. J. Haugeland).
    Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.

    CC.
  • uses artificial intelligence to produce better results

    I'm sure "better results" refers to any results that do not threaten or embarass the current power structure.

  • You people need to get over yourselves (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bogie ( 31020 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:15PM (#11021763) Journal
    The Chinese government was one of SEVERAL large investors. Not the only investor as the submittor tried to frame it. This search engine isn't some sort of special anti-democracy device whose sole purpose is to oppress the Chinese people. If you think Clinton was anti-democratic then you must be posting from Cananda right now considering the current administrations policies.

    If we are going to start bashing everyone who has anything to do with making or receiving money from the Chinese government then there are going to be a hell of a lot of Neocon's on the list as well.

  • Do they know what they're missing? Show them. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ZackSchil ( 560462 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:15PM (#11021765)
    This should signal google to immediately remove all of it censorship in China. They tried to do some minimal censorship but if that wasn't enough, why not just drop out entirely and put up a non-offensive message letting the chinese people know what they're missing. If that gets blocked too, so be it. I've talked to a few students from China in the US and they say that the public apathy over censorship is downright frightening. If your content is being censored, put up a message and withhold it all. Nothing they can do about that.
    • Then China would just outright block Google. What would that accomplish?

      Losing a 1.3 billion person market on principle... Sounds nice, but unfortunately, this is the real world.
    • That sounds great and all, but why do you think Google complied with any censorship demands to begin with? $$.

      Google doesn't want to guarantee losing a market that large to make a point.
  • In China, the search engine owns You!

  • Clinton.. (Score:2, Troll)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 )
    If you ever wondered what clinton really thought of human rights..this should remove all doubt. where is the media outcry?
    • But Clinton is a Democrat and that gives him a pass. Kind of like the way NOW ignores the treatment of women in most muslim countries.

      And mods, debate me - don't try to hid what you do not like.
  • Yea, when I search for my name with quotes it finds my page on the first non ad hit. When I search without it just finds my last name on a bunch of pages. that's .. useful. Google returns my homepage as the #1 hit for both and I don't have to scroll to see it.

    Wake me when this becomes something good.

  • A little biased? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CroyDax ( 211988 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:20PM (#11021830) Homepage Journal
    First search result for 'linux' is microsoft.com

    http://accoona.com/search?col=mc&qt=linux [accoona.com]

    • Re:A little biased? (Score:3, Informative)

      by dze ( 89612 )
      To be fair, that is a "sponsored result" (in admittedly tiny print). The actual results are lousy though. None of their top 10 are in google's top 10 (which seem quite fair to me -- sites like linux.com, linux.org, kernel.org, redhat.com, debian.org etc).

  • Another comparison: Tibet (Score:5, Informative)

    by zanderredux ( 564003 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:21PM (#11021848)
    It's funny to see that a generic query on "tibet" instead of the very specific "free tibet" yields differents results.

    Accoona [accoona.com] shows a lot of tourist-related information on Tibet and pro-Chinese links on Tibet, that considers Tibet as any another region inside China.

    Google [google.com], in the other hand, shows a lot of pages related to the movement to free Tibet from Chinese domination. Note the link to the Tibetan Government in Exile's website, which ranked #3 in Google. Also, note that the #3 match in Accoona (under "sponsored links"), shows the Chinese government's page on Tibet.

    Isn't this undeniable proof that Accoona's filtering works?

  • the first thing I ever search for in a new engine is "google".

    I think it's a pretty good test of the honesty of the engine.

    try it with this one :/
  • "Accoona takes its name from the Swahili phrase, "accoona matata," for "no worries," popularized by Disney's film, "The Lion King." "

    you gotta be classy when you associate your companies name with lion kind.

  • Riiiight. (Score:4, Informative)

    by gosand ( 234100 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:27PM (#11021924)
    I am sure others will point this out, but...
    Do a search for "linux" on google and on accoona.
    Other searches provided just as useless results.

    Linux on google:

    www.linux.org/
    www.linux.com/
    www.redhat.com/
    www.kernel.org/
    www.debian.org/
    www.linuxjourna l.com/
    www.linux-mandrake.com/
    www.linux-laptop. net/
    www.linuxtoday.com/
    www.gentoo.org/


    Linux on accoona:

    http://software-linux.jovencitas-cachondas.org/
    http://software-for-linux.jovencitas-cachondas.or g /
    http://programas-para-linux.jovencitas-cachonda s.o rg/
    http://linux-software.jovencitas-cachondas.or g/
    http://programas-en-linux.jovencitas-cachondas .org /
    http://linux.ittoolbox.com/
    http://ie.mojolin. com/
    http://zh.mojolin.com/
    http://uk.mojolin.co m/
    http://au.mojolin.com/

  • sigh. communism != totalitarianism (Score:5, Insightful)

    by maw ( 25860 ) on Tuesday December 07, 2004 @03:34PM (#11022001) Journal
    With all those nasty pro-democracy websites that Google keeps turning up, what's a communist country supposed to do? Well, create their own search engine of course!

    I'm no communist, but I hate seeing the debate muddied like this. Just to be clear, communism shouldn't be conflated with totalitarianism, just as capitalism shouldn't be conflated with liberty. China demonstrates that well; for most of the past half-century it was basically communist and totalitarian; now it is rapidly moving towards capitalism, but the totalitarianism shows few signs of abating, unfortunately.

    • China demonstrates that well; for most of the past half-century it was basically communist and totalitarian; now it is rapidly moving towards capitalism, but the totalitarianism shows few signs of abating, unfortunately.

      Looks like they're proving that capitalism, not democracy, is the source of prosperity.

    • no communism is inheriently totalitarian. have you read any writings of communist leaders? what happens to people who disagree? in the utopia society suppose someone is born and that person disagrees, what happens to them? they are removed form "utopia". i dont like proof by example, but look at any communist state in the world today how come EVERY SINGLE one of them is totalitarian? can you show me a case whem communism is not?
  • The results are provided by Overture. Just look at the links and compare a few queries.
  • Hmm. This is interesting.. Compare searches for "tiananmen square" on the english-language version of accoona.com with their own chinese-language site:

    English Search Results [accoona.com] (Scroll down to "ACCOONA RESULTS")

    Chinese Search Results [accoona.cn]

    First search result on the english page is titled "Fifteenth Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre." That page doesn't even show up at all in the results on the chinese-language version.

  • When I search for 'wikipedia' the first result I get has this headline 'Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Bukkake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia'

    Alright, looks like some AI that!
  • From the terms:

    "By posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication through this service, you are granting ACCOONA a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to:

    Use, copy, sublicense, adapt, transmit, publicly perform or display any such communication. Sublicense to third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the foregoing rights granted with respect to the communication.

    The foregoing grants shall include the rig
  • Search for linux and get microsoft.com as the first result.

    Feeling Lucky?

  • I can't say I'm impressed with this search engine offering. I tried the most obvious query I could think of, bill clinton [accoona.com], which yielded a bizarre novelty site [saintclinton.com] as the first result.

    A Google search on the same keywords [google.com] yields Bill Clinton's official White House biography [whitehouse.gov].

    I'll be waiting for Accoona 2.0.

  • Can't resist (Score:2, Funny)

    by gmknobl ( 669948 )
    So, now China will have the Fox News of search engines.

    Both extremes meet in the middle and do the same..

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