A screenshot of Baidu's new English-language news blog, Baidu Beat.

Top Chinese search engine Baidu Inc has opened an English-language news blog, Baidu Beat, to keep netizens updated on the hottest Chinese news topics on the Web.

The blog, located at beat.baidu.com, was launched Monday, and features posts on a handful of subjects each day that seek to highlight the most widely searched topics on baidu.com.

Readers can stay in touch with the pulse of Chinese web surfers and what issues they are tuned into, given the massive amount of information going through the site every day, said Kaiser Kuo, director of international communications for Baidu, speaking to the Global Times in a phone interview.

"As China's largest search provider, as well as the operator of some of its biggest online fo-rums, we offer English-speakers a window onto the Chinese Internet," said Kuo.

Baidu's Kuo is a former China rock star-turned public relations professional.

Story ideas may also be from hot topics in Web-based communities under the Baidu label, including Baidu Tieba ("PostBar") and its most popular community Q&A site Baidu Zhidao ("Baidu Knows").

"Baidu is paving the way into the English-speaking market," said Jin Naili, an Internet market analyst in Beijing with iResearch, an IT consulting and research company.

"And this is surely going to give its investors space for imagination."

Baidu already dominates more than 70 percent of domestic search service use in 2010, thus it is eager to expand beyond the search service or outside China, said Jin.

Baidu launched a video website and pre-owned home sales portal last year, and it launched its Japanese-language search engine in 2008.