Baidu listed on WordDial SEARCH portal

Update: (11.21.2007) Baidu has fallen to last (sixth) place at 732724.com

WordDial, the New Zealand internet company that owns more numeric domains than there are books in a typical local library, has a new client: Baidu, the Chinese search giant. Recent news has indicated that Baidu is stepping up its mobile efforts and, as Jamptap just discovered, Baidu has bought its way into fourth place on WordDial's premiere SEARCH portal. The Baidu link appears below those for the three U.S. search engine giants (Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo) and above ASK and AOL search.

WordDial's SEARCH portal is one of thousands of portals set up by the company that allow quick access to mobile friendly sites from users' mobile keypads. The premise behind the site is that of the wordnumber. A wordnumber is the numeric equivalent of a word using a phone keypad as the frame of reference - for instance the worddnumber for SEARCH is 732724. WordDial owns a staggering number of dot com worddnumbers for generic words, most of which will take users to relevant hyperlinked directories/portals.

WordDial doesn't just own dot com wordnumbers for generic words. It also owns the same for phrases, places, and even some brands. For instance WordDial owns the dot com wordnumber for Yahoo (92466.com). (It - owing to an agreement with Yahoo - forwards all traffic from 92466.com to the SEARCH portal (732724.com).) WordDial also owns the dot com worddnumber for Live (5483.com) and that portal - owing to an agreement with Microsoft - has a link to Windows Live Search for Mobile/MSN Mobile above a link to a Vodafone site.

WordDial, however, doesn't own the dot com wordnumbers for Google (466453.com, which is owned by Google and goes to Google.com), and also ASK and Baidu.

The idea of the wordnumber dates back to the early days of the internet. It was in 1999 that Google launched its Google Number Search (GNS) that prompted users to visit 466453.com and type in urls or search phrases as wordnumbers. The basic functions are still written into Google's search technology as operators ALLNUM and NUM. Jamptap has long speculated that Google will relaunch its GNS product again in the future. When it does, enterprises like WordDial will pat themselves on the back for being patient with a userbase that that has largely ignored its efforts to popularize (and profit from) the wordnumber.