When it comes to the mobile web, the technology industry seems to be split between two camps - native apps and HTML5 web-based apps.
As Android, iPhone and other mobile platforms grow, we are moving away from the page-based Internet. The new Internet is app centric and often message-centric.
I refused to do a lot on mobile Internet until around 2009. But because we didn't start early, it took us some time to figure out what's the important thing, what's the most relevant thing for Baidu.
The Mobile Web Initiative is important - information must be made seamlessly available on any device.
The mobile Web, location-based services, inexpensive and pervasive mobile apps, and new sorts of opportunities to access cars, bikes, tools, talent, and more from our neighbors and colleagues will propel peer-to-peer access services into market.
Location is the sole difference between mobile and traditional Web.
The Mesh difference is that with GPS-enabled mobile Web devices and social networks, physical goods are now easily located in space and time.
I am impressed with the innovation in the wireless marketplace. The Blackberry, the iPhone, the Pre, and other smart devices are breakthrough technologies that have helped revolutionize the wireless space.
History suggests the 2010s will give rise to a super-unicorn or two that reflect the key tech wave of the decade, the mobile web.
When I'm introspective about the last few years I think the biggest mistake that we made, as a company, is betting too much on HTML5 as opposed to native... because it just wasn't there. And it's not that HTML5 is bad. I'm actually, on long-term, really excited about it. One of the things that's interesting is we actually have more people on a daily basis using mobile Web Facebook than we have using our iOS or Android apps combined. So mobile Web is a big thing for us.
We're also looking a lot at graphics and video. We've done a lot on a deep technical level to make sure that the next version of Firefox will have all sorts of new graphics capabilities. And the move from audio to video is just exploding. So those areas in particular, mobile and graphics and video, are really important to making the Web today and tomorrow as open as it can be.
