Search Engine Squeeze?

摘要

For months, the Web site China City Map rankedrnamong the top results tor the Chinese term "provincial map" on Google and other search engines, including China's No. l player, Baidu. Then in August, salesmen representing Baidu asked the site to buy ads that would appear after a user typed in words related to maps in China. Chief Executive Michael Chen declined, figuring he was doing just fine without the ads. But in September, the site vanished from Baidu's results, though it still ranked high on Google and Yahoo! Traffic dropped by 90%. "If you have problems with Baidu," says Chen, "you're basically dead."