Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU), which is trying to fend off a challenge from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in the Chinese mobile search market, is launching a new mobile app — which it is describing as the “most important product in (its) mobile strategy.” Unlike the web search market, which it continues to dominate, Baidu is tied with Google for the lead in the country’s mobile search market. That’s in part because Google has a search distribution deal with China’s biggest carrier, China Mobile. Baidu has countered recently with deals to pre-install its search engine, along with associated Baidu products, on 3G phones sold by rival carriers China Unicom and China Telecom.
ComputerWorld says Baidu’s new app — called Baidu *Palm* — “hooks users into its search, message board and question-and-answer online services.” It’s currently in beta and is expected to come pre-installed on some phones “soon.”
Both Google and Baidu are counting on heady growth in the Chinese mobile search market. Google, for instance, has said that it expects that mobile search volume may exceed computer search volume in the country by 2011.

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