• PC World, Friday, August 17, 2007 11:15 AM

Google dominates search everywhere in the world except China; fittingly, the search giant is now redoubling its efforts to move past Chinese No. 1 Baidu.com. "Over the next year, Google will acquire one or two companies in China, and invest in four to five companies," Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google China, told a Chinese news outlet.

Google doesn't like being second, which is why China is becoming a priority, as CEO Eric Schmidt revealed during the company's second quarter conference call last month. "It's a very good start, and although we don't think that this will result in an immediate huge success, we think that the tenacity of Google ... will bring significant victories in China over the next few years," Schmidt said.

However, Baidu has a firmly established lead, so investments and strategic partnerships will likely play a key role if Google manages to successfully wrest away the top spot. Thus far, the Web giant has invested in the Chinese peer-to-peer file sharing site Xunlei. It also has a mobile search deal with China Mobile Communications, the largest mobile operator in the country. And it has a cross-advertising partnership with Sina Corp., a Chinese Web portal.

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