Baidu.com, China’s leading search engine, has always been more commercial than Google was. It’s common knowledge that its results are often not as good as those from Google’s algorithms. But because its entertainment results were ‘different’ (=easier to find illegal material) and most Chinese searches are related to entertainment, it still managed to keep a big lead over Google.

One big difference between Baidu and Google is how the paid results are mixed with organic search results. Both sites insert paid results, but Google gives them a yellow background so that it’s clear that they are different from the normal search results. Baidu does not do that, they look exactly the same as normal results, except for the characters ???tui guang) after the ad. Normal results have ???? (Baidu kuai zhao). Of course the average Chinese netizen probably does not know this.

This is nothing new, they have done this for a long time already. But what changed over the past few weeks, is that they now don’t sell 2 or 3 paid positions, but for some keywords up to 10 positions! For example, if you do a search for the Chinese word for game (??), the first 10 results are all paid results. If you look at the screen shot for the search I did, you only see paid results, both on the left and right side. Not one organic result pops up on the main page. I was looking at the search engine results for some of game.com.cn’s key words, and for many of them we are totally wiped away from one of the top positions to one below the fold (=you don’t see us on your screen without scrolling down). Of course this has quite some impact on traffic, but it’s the same for the competition and I assume it will be temporary because I don’t think Baidu can do this for a long time.

I think that Baidu is able to do this only because it’s a quasi-monopolist now. With Google gone to Hong Kong they suddenly have the whole search engine market for themselves. If you are annoyed by their search results you don’t have a good alternative. If you go to the redirected google.cn now, you only get Hong Kong results, meaning that most of the results are irrelevant for mainland Chinese users. I don’t understand that Google did not think about this and would instead give results based on IP address (mainland China users get Chinese results, Hong Kong users get Hong Kong results). Now they will lose even more traffic from China.

I assume that soon Google’s position will be taken over by one of the local players (Sohu’s search engine Sogou is working hard on this) or by another foreign company (Bing could have a good chance, if the government is still willing to support a foreign player). I look forward to a bit more competition in this space, the quicker the better.

On Monday after lunch we drove from Las Vegas to Death Valley. The hottest (and second lowest) place on earth was not so very hot in mid-March, but still a lot warmer than Vegas. It’s a great nature reserve and it’s huge. Just driving through it took us several hours (incl. stops). I was very impressed with the place, the natural environment is amazing with large salt pans, desert sand dunes and high mountains.

A place you can spend several days in, but we decided that a few hours was enough and continued our road trip to Los Angeles. There we arrived late at night and managed to get a suite in the Hotel California on Santa Monica Beach. My sister and I both did some emails before catching a few hours of very much needed sleep. My sister woke me up the next morning to go running along Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Enjoyable to run along the beaches, but I was not too impressed by Venice Beach. A lot of homeless people and the place felt run down, not what I had expected.

I got free tickets from The Walt Disney Company for the Disneyland, so in the afternoon we decided to check that out. We visited Disney’s California Experience, the second theme park that Disney built in Anaheim. Similar to Disneyland with a lot of attractions and Disney characters, but with a bit more focus on California. We spent a few hours here before driving back into the city (experiencing LAs traffic jams…). We took a hotel on Sunset boulevard and spent the evening walking around Hollywood and having a few beers. Also here I was a bit disappointed. Hollywood boulevard is totally run down, hardly any decent bars or restaurants and mainly tattoo shops and other seedy places. Sunset was a bit better, but hardly so. The bars we found were okay, but nothing special compared to Shanghai. My expectations were not met.

The next morning we took off early, driving through Beverly Hills and later checking out the shops around Rodeo Drive. Beverly Hills has some huge mansions, but most houses were quite normal actually. Not sure if I would like to live here, it all felt a bit pretentious. We then drove out of the city on Highway 1, and had our first stop in Malibu. We had lunch on the beach, watching some seals play in the water right in front of us and a surfer trying to catch the big waves. Very enjoyable. We then kept on driving on Highway 1 until we hit Avila Beach around 6 pm, just in time to watch the sunset there. Avila Beach is a very nice town, especially because it was completely rebuilt after an oil leak in 1998. The oil company spent big money to compensate the people and made the town very nice. We spent an evening drinking wine on the hotel’s rooftop and then had a big dinner in a local seafood restaurant.

The next day we had a long ride again along Highway 1. Our first stop was Hearst Castle, a crazy place built by a person who clearly did not know what to do with his money. We then continued through Big Sur, with the most beautiful coast line that I have ever seen. Totally amazing. At some parts there was heavy fog, but the further we got the better the weather was and the last 20 miles or so the sky was completely blue again. We then went to Carmel-by-the-sea, arguably the nicest town (village?) in the US. I love the place. Nice restaurants, shops and galleries and an amazing beach front. It seems like the perfect place to retire. We then went to the Pebble Beach golf course where we had dinner in the club’s restaurant overlooking the 18th hole. But we first did the 17-mile drive around the Pebble Beach peninsula. Absolutely worth it, beautiful nature and amazing houses along the coast.

Late at night we drove on to Santa Cruz where we stayed in a hotel next to the main beach. Santa Cruz itself was a bit of a disappointment, but the beach is nice. The fun park with roller coasters and other attractions looked terrible, but I guess that’s what most people come to Santa Cruz for… We then drove on to Half Moon Bay for lunch at the Ritz-Carlton, located on a golf course next to the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean. A magnificent location!

After lunch we drove to Palo Alto where we did some shopping and had a drink on University Avenue. In the late afternoon I took my sister to the airport where she took a flight to Vancouver to go skiing and to watch the final day of the Paralympics. I stayed for two more nights, and today (Sunday) I am flying back to Shanghai, writing this during the 13-hour flight over the Pacific. I had a great time with my sister, we got to know each other much better during the past day. And I have finally seen a bit more of California than just San Francisco and the Valley, something I had wanted to do for a long time already.

For more pictures of the road trip see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chijs/sets/72157623619616072/

Last week I took a week off to drive around California with my sister Sonja. She has been on a round the world trip for the past 5 months and coincidentally we were in the US around the same time. So after a busy week at the GDC conference I took a plane from San Francisco to San Diego on Saturday night to meet my sister there. We only had 6 days and we wanted to see a lot, so we decided not to waste time and try to pack as much in these few days as possible.

On Sunday morning we got up early, despite my sister having a major jet lag (she had arrived from Australia on Saturday). We walked around downtown San Diego and explored the waterfront. A nice and quiet city, but I guess almost every city is quiet compared the Shanghai. Around lunch time we decided to go to Tijuana, south of San Diego just across the Mexican border. I heard it was always very busy there and extremely touristy, but I wanted to take a look anyway.

The drive over took only about 30 minutes, and after parking the car at a shopping mall on the US side we walked across the border into Mexico. Tijuana was much more Mexican than I had expected, a big difference from the US towns just a few kilometers away. But it was also much more quiet, it looked like we were about the only tourists. A bit strange considering that the guidebooks warned for the huge crowds of tourists there. I didn’t think too much about it and we walked around the town a bit. Not only the main streets, but we also explored the smaller ones to get a better feel for the city. Eventually we had a big lunch on a rooftop. There were only some Mexicans, no other tourists in sight. A quick check online learned me that there had been some drug related crime in the city, and I assumed that was the reason there were no tourists. But I was not too worried, everything seemed peaceful. Maybe a bit too peaceful actually…

A few hours later we decided that we had not done enough yet in one day and went back across the border to the US. We had to wait for about an hour in a one kilometer line of Mexicans also trying to cross the border on a late Sunday afternoon, but re-entry went fairly easy. In the car we decided to drive to Las Vegas, about a 5 hour drive. My sister and I could both drive, so we felt it was feasible. The first part my sister drove, and I put together a road trip play list on a USB stick (the car sound system had a USB port, every car should have that).

While driving I checked some more news about Tijuana and was shocked to find out that 600 people had been killed in the town over the past year. Not just “some” drug related crime, but 600 people who had been gunned down. No wonder there were no tourists… Later that night we saw that on the same day several other people had been killed there and that in a city close by a US consular employee had been gunned down in a drive-by shooting. Pretty scary when you just went there a few hours earlier. It did not feel dangerous, but sometimes things are not what they seem. Anyway, we didn’t encounter any problems, but we may have taken a bigger risk than we realized.

We arrived in Las Vegas around 11 PM, ending up in a huge traffic jam on the Strip. After checking into a hotel we walked around the Strip for a while and then had a drink in the Bellagio casino, watching the crowd lose money. I can’t gamble, I have an aversion to it. I guess I am just too rational, if the odds are against you and you can’t influence the result why bother? For the same reason I have never bought a lottery ticket, knowing the odds takes the thrill out of it for me. But it’s still fun to watch, especially when people lose big time and to see how they react. At 2 AM we saw several people outside the casinos shouting on mobile phones, likely because they were agitated because they lost a lot of money.

Vegas was fun for a night, it feels like a parallel world to the one we live in. What has been built in the middle of the desert is totally amazing. It’s tacky and all just a facade, but it’s an amazing sight nonetheless. Especially when you approach Las Vegas late at night from the totally dark desert and you see the lights in the distance coming closer it is quite a sight. I knew there was a copy of the Eiffel Tower and a pyramid, but seeing them lighted up while driving into the city is still an unexpected experience.

The next morning we spent in Las Vegas and then we had lunch in a casino. It was Monday morning and the casino was quite full, something I just could not understand. Do these people not have a job? Or are they just so addicted that they can’t stay away from the game? It gave me something to think about while driving out of the glitzy Las Vegas into the desert.

Pictures of the road trip see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chijs/sets/72157623619616072/

A few days ago I started to receive messages and tweets that my blog was not working. That happens sometimes so I did not pay much attention to it. Until I realized that I could still see it in the US on my laptop, but not on my China Mobile phone using GPRS. Also all the people that had contacted me were based in China. A quick check revealed that my blog was ‘harmonized’ as the Chinese euphemistically call it.

Why would my blog be blocked? I don’t think it’s because of the content. I do not write much about political issues, and even if I would I don’t think that would matter much (you can get away with a lot more in China than most people think). I think it likely has to do with my hosting provider GoDaddy.com. I received a message from them that they migrated my content to a new non-dedicated server (without informing me about it in advance, this also caused an outage of a couple of hours), and likely there is some stuff on this server that didn’t pass the censor’s test. In that case all the content on that particular server will be inaccessible from China…

This happened to me with another domain as well a few months ago, also with GoDaddy. At that time I got in touch with them to change that domain to a different IP address, but they could not guarantee that IP would not be blocked in China. Eventually I was forced to move the domain to another hosting provider. I am doing the same with this blog now, however, while doing that it turned out that my credit card was blocked as well!

That was not related to China of course, and when I called my bank they told me that they blocked it because of some transactions in San Francisco. I told them that that was correct, because that’s where I was at that time. “Sorry sir, we did not know this”. Right, but it’s not that I travel for the first time to San Francisco using this credit card.. Well, they unblocked the card, but now my new hosting provider lets me wait before I can change my nameservers. Anyway, hopefully in a few more days this blog should be accessible again within the Great Firewall. And if it isn’t that means that not the server was blocked, but that my blog itself is indeed considered harmful…

Today I was walking over the Game Developers Conference expo floor when I saw a crowd of people around an arcade machine. Out of curiosity I took a look what was going on and then I saw that someone was playing Donkey Kong. That used to be my favorite game in the early 1980’s, not on an arcade machine but on a Nintendo Stop & Watch (I still have an old one, but it stopped working years ago).

The guy playing was extremely good and when I looked at the sign next to the machine I realized I was watching the world record holder in action, Steve Wiebe He was the first person ever to break the 1,000,000 points barrier in Donkey Kong. I haven’t played Donkey Kong in ages, but it was fun to see Steve in action. He actually plays very differently from how I used to play. I always tried to go up as soon as possible, he takes his time and tries to score as many points first before going up one level. Pretty cool to see him play. See for more information on Steve see his website here, or his Wikipedia page here. There was also a film made about him, see here for more information.

Today was the first day of GDC 2010, the yearly Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Despite a short night of sleep I felt pretty awake during most of the day, likely also due to the large number of cups of coffee that I consumed. Coffee is the drink of choice at GDC, every break there is free coffee and during every meeting I drink at least one cup as well.

When walking to the Moscone Center this morning I immediately knew who of the crowd around me was going to GDC as well. Game developers stand out in the crowd, their dress code and hairstyles are a bit ‘different’. As Popcap’s @giordanodc put it diplomatically in a tweet yesterday (he was on the same plane with me): “En route to GDC. You can always tell if a plane is bound for a game industry conference. mThis ain’t Fashion Week”.

After picking up my badge I tried to buy some food inside the Moscone, but it turned out that the food outlets were still closed (they remained closed the whole day actually, not sure why). So I went out to a deli to get a sandwich and talked to some people. Because your Twitter name is on your GDC badge it’s pretty cool that you can immediately check them out on Twitter, all conferences should to that.

During the sessions many people were using their laptops (mainly Macs of course) or going online on their phones. There was decent wifi this year, much better than last year when I could not find a signal anywhere, so tweeting was a great way to keep up with what was said in parallel sessions, or to read the comments of others in the audience on the session you’re watching. There was no Twitter back channel projection, which is something they should have added as well.

This year the social games summit was extremely popular, it’s clear that social games are hot. Some of the sessions were completely full and you even had to wait in line to get in (if you could get in at all). But the longest line was for the free Nexus One and Droid giveaway for developers. A super smart idea from Google: if you give game developers a brand new Android phone there is a good chance that they will start developing games for them. All over the place there were people with Nexus One’s, a nice sight.

The first day of the conference was totally worth the trip already. I met a lot of people, heard a lot of news and have a lot of new ideas to think about. And of course it’s always nice to hear the rumors about competitors, you only hear those things at this kind of conference. One full day down, three more days to go.

Four hours ago I arrived in San Francisco after an overnight economy class flight from Shanghai. Despite having the first row of cattle class I still did not manage to sleep much (=not at all) on the plane. But because I have several meetings later today and even a business dinner tonight I need to make sure I get over my jet lag as soon as possible. The easiest solution is of course to take a short nap, but that is more a temporary solution and it can actually make the problem worse.

The best thing to do in my opinion is to go for a long slow run. It’s not easy, but you feel great afterwards. So I put on my running shorts, shirt & shoes and ran down from Union Square to the Ferry Building next to Pier 1. From there I ran all along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf and continued until past the beach and Fort Mason. A great run (1 hour 10 min), with lots to see and (on a Monday morning at 10 AM) not very busy. I took my Nexus One (=phone) with me and took some pictures during the run.

It’s strange, but each time I am in San Francisco I feel immediately at home here. I had the same thing last year as well, there is such an entrepreneurial vibe in this city. Similar to, but also different from Shanghai. What I miss in Shanghai I can find here: nature, fresh air and an outdoor life. I think I mentioned in a blog post last year that you should not be surprised if one day I would start a business here, and I have the same feeling now again. Maybe I should really look into this more seriously.

Of course not everything is perfect here. The one thing that struck me this morning, both in the taxi ride from the airport and during my 12 kilometer run, were the homeless people. They are everywhere. There are a lot more homeless people in San Francisco than in Shanghai I think – actually, now that I think about it, I hardly ever see beggars anymore in Shanghai. Also things are quite expensive here, but maybe not as expensive as Shanghai (note to self: check out housing prices in SF).

Anyway, I am looking forward to an interesting week at GDC (Game Developers Conference). A very busy week with right now 22 appoinments (plus 2 new ones that came in through Twitter this morning). I am ready for it! Next week I plan to take a week off to unwind a bit: I plan to go down to Mexico and then drive back up to San Francisco with my sister (who is on a round the world trip right now).

I regularly see interviews with Gary Wang, Tudou’s CEO, through Google Alerts and Twitter, but most are more or less the same. However, today’s interview with the China Daily is one of the better ones I have seen over the past years. I’m normally not a big fan of the China Daily, but this piece shows Gary like how I have got to know him over the years:

As a man who comfortably mixes his work and free time, Wang is happy dealing with business emails while camping during a hike and allows flexible working hour for his employees. As an interviewee he is relaxed to the point of resting his legs on the office table while excitably discussing his favorite books.

Surprisingly, these characteristics, regarded by some as perhaps conceited and arrogant, helped Wang win approval from many investors, one of whom once said he felt “assured” by Wang’s attitude towards work and life.

“Doing business is like playing games: You grow up by passing each level and fight with bigger bosses each time,” Wang said, sitting in his office in Beijing soon after CCTV and Baidu announced they were establishing their own video websites. “I believe we can survive and thrive.”

The article also talks about the business environment and how Tudou sees the entrance of new players, for example like the Hulu clone that Chinese leading search engine Baidu.com will launch soon:

For many like Tudou, the arrival of new competitors is akin to a group of scrumpers helping themselves to the ripe grapes one had looked after for years. But Wang said he knew this would happen “from the first day when I established the company”.

He said: “It is natural that big elephants will come when the market matures, but I don’t believe that anyone can dominate China’s online video market.”

He denies his firm is in direct competition with content makers such as CCTV and Hunan TV because “the licensed content on Tudou.com only accounts for two to three percent of our total traffic”.

Also makes sure you read the Q&A on the 3rd page of the article, it contains some good quotes such as “What makes people great is mainly down to circumstances. If he had lacked proper chances or the right environment, Abraham Lincoln may only have been a village teacher.”