After the millennium changed, Baidu, Inc. (Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù, pronounced BY-doo in English) was founded by Robin Li and Eric Xu. The founders are Chinese nationals who studied and worked overseas before returning to China. Baidu is a Chinese web services company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District in Beijing.
The project began in 1994 when Robin Li joined IDD Information Services, a New Jersey division of Dow Jones and Company, where he helped develop software for the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. He also worked on developing better algorithms for search engines. Two years later, Li developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm for search engines results page ranking and received a US patent for the technology. He used this technology for the Baidu search engine.
Baidu offers services that include a Chinese language-search engine for websites, audio files, and images. The company offers search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively built encyclopedia, and a searchable, keyword-based discussion forum. Baidu also offers multimedia content including MP3 music, and movies, and is the first in China to offer Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and personal digital assistant (PDA)-based mobile search.
Baidu is also in some ways similar to Wikipedia as an encyclopedia, however, unlike Wikipedia only registered users can edit the articles.
The name "Baidu" is a quote from the last line of Xin Qiji's classical poem "Green Jade Table in The Lantern Festival" saying: "Having searched thousands of times in the crowd, suddenly turning back, She is there in the dimmest candlelight."
