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Top Chinese search engine Baidu gains popularity among the big names in business and technology.

Leading Chinese search engine Baidu is the fourth most viewed search engine in the world, and some powerful companies have taken notice.

Created in 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu, Baidu's mission is, "to provide the best way for people to find information online, including Chinese language web pages, news, images and multimedia files though links provided on our website. In addition to serving individual Internet search users, we also provide an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers online."

According to analyst Safa Rashtchy, Baidu is currently in talks with software giant Microsoft for a search-distribution agreement.

Similar deals are reportedly also being negotiated with major blue-chip Internet service providers China Telcom and China Netcom.

If the deals are signed Baidu stands to gain up to 50 million more searches daily, which would generate $10 to $20 million dollars in revenue over the next year.

The increase in Baidu's revenue would boost the next year's target 5 to 10 percent, and also put the already intangible site even further ahead in the race. Baidu already holds 60 percent of the Chinese market.

Baidu's interest in the agreements seems to be quite obvious, with most Internet service providers using their own site as the default page.

As per the agreements, Baidu would appear on the ISP's sites and generate a substantial amount of traffic.

Rather than fight China's top Internet site and create an unfriendly user image, Microsoft seems to be content with joining the Baidu team.

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Autmn Davis is a staff writer for WebProNews covering ebusiness and technology.