The competition between search engines 百度(bǎidù) Baidu and 谷歌(gǔgē) Google is always a hot topic. As the most popular Chinese search engine in the world, 百度(bǎidù) Baidu recently published its new platform concept-框计算(kuàng jìsuàn) Box Computing, which obviously challenges the 云计算(yún jìsuàn) Cloud Computing platform from the largest international search engine 谷歌(gǔgē) Google. Here are the explanations of these two search engines' Chinese names:
百度(bǎidù) Baidu
The phrase 百度(bǎidù) Baidu originates from a sentence in an ancient Chinese poem-众里寻他千百度,蓦然回首, 那人却在灯火阑珊处. Zhòng lǐ xún tā qiān bǎidù, mòrán huíshǒu, nà rén què zài dēnghuǒ lánshān chù. Having searched for him or her hundreds and thousands of times in the crowd, suddenly when I turn back, he or she is there by the dim light. 百度(bǎidù) here means hundreds and thousands of times. 百(bǎi) literally refers to a hundred, but here it means many times. 度(dù) here refers to degree. You can always hear people say 你去百度一下就知道了(Nǐ qù bǎidù yí xià jiù zhīdào le) Just go Baidu it and you'll know.
谷歌(gǔgē) Google
In China, the phrase 谷歌(gǔgē), the Chinese name for Google, came into use in 2006. 谷歌(gǔgē) literally means newmovie for millet or corn. 谷(gǔ) means millet or corn and 歌(gē) means newmovie. The phrase here refers to the newmovie for harvesting. It shows Chinese people's hope for happiness and luck.
