Box computing will promote innovation in Internet applications and accelerate the update of Internet service providers, he said.

More convenient

"When you press the power key to turn on your computer, within a second a box and only one box will appear," said Li. "As long as there is such a box, all your needs can be met, without necessitating users to learn anything new. Ask your questions, and we will do needs analysis and deliver the results. It will become much easier for users but it needs more complicated technology to support it."

Analyzing what users really want is the most complicated field in computer science, which requires advanced technology. The process includes semantic and behavior analysis, intelligent human-computer interaction and massive computing power. When a user types a requirement in the search engine, it will be divided into 20 semantic units, which will go through more than 300 million calculations in the backend of the search engine. After searching more than 10 billion websites, matched results will be provided to the user within 0.1 seconds.

Today, there is much information that is still in the hidden Web, which is World Wide Web content that is not available easily from the Internet. Li Yinan, Chief Technology Officer of Baidu.com, said that exploring more hidden websites and choosing more advantageous resources are key research areas for Baidu.

"Traditional search methods are not enough to explore hidden Web information. Hence, our company is currently doing an important job. That is to set up open information platforms to provide convenient uploading methods and also provide more flow resources to those content providers," he said.

"Today, search engine users hope to obtain information they need anytime, anywhere. This is a new challenge to Baidu," he said. "We are trying to link the mature search engine to those wireless ends such as cellphones and personal digital assistants, making the 'search' really everywhere."

Baidu receives more than 1 billion requirements from its search engine every day. Li Yanhong thinks that is just the beginning.

"Innovation is Baidu's life," he said. Box computing and other such products as the next-generation Baidu map search engine, Baidu Baike, palm Baidu and Phoenix Nest, are the results of innovation. To support technical innovation, Baidu insists on investing 1 billion yuan ($146.4 million) every year and has built a professional team with thousands of top-quality engineers. More than 30 technological updates are put online each day.

Box Computing in Experts' Eyes

Wu Jinglian (senior researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council): The concept of box computing provides a new platform for Internet services to make great innovations. Today, the emergence of all kinds of new technologies on the basis of the integration of telecommunications, broadcasts and Internet not only predicts there will be a revolutionary development in the IT industry, but also may lead to great changes in all industries and even our social life.

Zhu Baoliang (chief economist with the Economic Forecast Department of the State Information Center): Today, the number of Chinese netizens has reached 338 million. The Chinese Internet industry needs a technical concept initiated by the Chinese themselves as its guide, such as the concept of box computing.

Liu Jiyang (chief engineer with Microsoft Asia Search Technology Center): Box computing focuses on openness, encouraging all those application service providers on the platform to be technologically innovative. On the basis of the box-computing platform, any new technologies and new applications that can satisfy users' demands can realize their value soon after integration into box computing. Technology developers can also better understand the demands of users and grasp the demands accurately to develop advantageous technologies and provide better technological applications.