Google have launched a free music search service in China to compete with those slightly controversial MP3 search facilities offered by Yahoo! and Baidu in the country - ie a search engine that specifically searches for music files online. The difference between the Google service and those operated by Yahoo! China and Baidu, however, is that the Google service links to legit music sites only, whereas the Yahoo! and Baidu services have pissed off the record companies somewhat by also linking to illegal content sources. Google will also give a cut of ad revenue generated by the service to the labels, so everyone in record company land thinks they're great. And so do we. Of course, whether the Chinese music fans currently accessing all kinds of music via Baidu will agree and switch to the presumably less comprehensive but more legit Google service remains to be seen.
Aug 7, 2008
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1 min read
Google launch music search service in China
Google has launched a free music search service in China that links only to legitimate sites, sharing ad revenue with labels.