Great news, folks! Beginning this morning (Friday, March 2, 2012), Baidu began providing real-time search services from Sina Weibo. Baidu will now return up-to-date Sina Weibo content that matches keyword searches for breaking news or popular trending topics. Results will also include microblog posts from the other three major Chinese Internet major portals’ microblog services. Microblog results, which will be displayed near the top of the search engine results page, will be clearly marked as such.

Users can click on “Newest Microblog Results” (最新微博结果) on their results page to see additional relevant microblog content from the four major portals’ respective microblog services.

A search engine’s core competitiveness is determined by its ability to deliver the most comprehensive, accurate and timely information to users. Real-time microblog search takes its place alongside other world-class search services Baidu already offers, like news, flight information, weather, traffic conditions and sporting events.

Want to try it out and see what it looks like? Pick a trending topic from our daily Top 10 list, enter the Chinese text in Baidu, and you should get Weibo results.

Or go to the Baidu Fengyunbang and cut-and-paste a phrase from the top trending list (the top list on the left) and pop that into the Baidu search box. Here’s one for Zhang Linseng, trending as I write:

READ MORE