Chinese internet company Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) responded to reports of problems with its news search (http://news.baidu.com) on April 24 by saying that the company was in the process of updating its search algorithms and site layout, and optimizing Baidu News functions.

Reporting on April 23, a Xinhuanet reporter found that keyword searches on Baidu News, which had previously turned up large numbers of news stories, no longer turned up anything. Some searches which had previously turned up recent articles now only lead to results from a year ago, or even from three years ago; other searches return zero hits.