Baidu

[Bigdumogre]

Came across this thread here - http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/46660-baidu-accountneed-help-to-type-in-chinese-verification-codeplease/ and everyone asking for baidu passwords. What is baidu? And why is it hard to get a password?

[edelweis]

baidu 百度 is a kind of Chinese Google. Actually it has many aspects including a kind of Wikipedia 百科, discussion groups, document sharing etc. (remember, Google is blocked in China).

And getting a password requires reading a capcha in Chinese characters. So people who can't read hanzis but still want a baidu account (what for, I let to your imagination), come to that other thread asking for help with the capcha.

[imron]

That's the thing I don't get. How useful can a baidu account be if you can't read Chinese?

[edelweis]

I suggest to make disclosure of the intended usage a condition to helping people with the capcha

Perhaps they found a link to some contents shared on baidu (not necessarily Chinese contents, possibly illegal in their home country?) and need an account to be able to access it?

[imron]

Googling 'baidu account verification' gives that thread as the top result so it's no wonder we get so many.

[Bigdumogre]

Thanks for the info

I typed in some English words and do get some searches. Really pointless if you can't read it though.

[edelweis]

With google translate or a popup dictionary (or just a how-to with screen captures), using web services in Chinese is not impossible.

I don't think it's the search function that those people are interested in... that one does not require an account.

So my guess is a mix of people accessing more or less dubious shared material on baidu pan or other sub-service of baidu,

and people who study the Chinese language and want to be able to take parts in discussions, subscribe to threads or whatever, but are not yet at a level where they can read the capchas easily.

[Silent]

 

 

That's the thing I don't get. How useful can a baidu account be if you can't read Chinese? 

For basic use of Baidu cloud you don't really need Chinese.... and works as a charm as an alternative to torrents. Though I've the impression quality and choice with torrents tends to be higher.

[Bigdumogre]

For basic use of Baidu cloud you don't really need Chinese.... and works as a charm as an alternative to torrents. Though I've the impression quality and choice with torrents tends to be higher.

Ahhh found this

http://www.1mtb.com/how-to-get-2-tb-free-cloud-storage-on-baidu-pan-cloud-network-drive/

Makes more sense now

[imron]

It makes less sense - the article says the captcha is in English!

[Bigdumogre]

It makes less sense - the article says the captcha is in English!

Haha yes

Was just saying it makes more sense why a lot of people would use it even the ones that can't read Chinese. Great place to keep files for free.

[roddy]

Think it's just a combination of free storage / downloads of files not available elsewhere / and for webmasters, submission to Baidu's search index. Eg, there's a complete walk through for the last of those

http://www.webnots.com/baidu-webmaster-tools-in-english/

but the captcha bit is a stumbling block. 

[pabsz07]

baidu is a useful cloud storage comparable to famous cloud storage like gdrive , dropbox and one drive because of the cloud storage size it offers for free.

In addition i want to add another chinese cloud storage is 115.com which gives me a large size cloud storage vs the 15GB on others.

But comparing baidu and 115.com , baidu is better in mobile devices but baidu verification is so hard to bypass unlike the other

[Silent]

When it comes to size the free Chinese cloud services are king. E.g. 360 云盘 gives me 36 TB for free. The big advantage of Baidu is for me is that that it's supported by my nas so I can sync folders. So my backups and some documents are automatically synced to the cloud.

 

I have however some concerns about privacy and being free services, they might just decide to quite offering it. These are however not different then the concerns with western companies.