Internet search giant Google will provide MP3 searches in China before the August Olympics, Web site Sina.com reports.

The report said Google China has been testing MP3 searches recently, with the expectation of providing legal copies of musical works.

Although legal music will be the biggest selling point of the service, it is still unknown whether the service will be free forever, or whether the music will be encrypted to avoid spreading.

This will be the first time Google has provided an MP3 search service.

In the new service, an exclusive, high-quality MP3 search result will be available for users, an insider says. This way, users can avoid the hassle of choosing from a large number of search results, which is currently the case in other MP3 search engines.

China's Baidu.com, Google China's biggest rival, has made MP3 searches one of its pillar services. Baidu's MP3 searches currently generate around 30 percent of its total traffic, but the company has been plagued by intellectual property rights battles.

A report from Web site 163.com quoted an insider as saying that Google has been negotiating with record companies on property rights issues.

The Sina.com report said Google China has agreed to share the advertising profits from MP3 searches with its partners, a similar business model to those of the search giant's other services. Finding suitable partners and expanding music resources are Google China's top priorities at the moment.

A Google China spokesman said that the company will not launch the MP3 search service before finding a win-win business model with the record companies.

An earlier report by Sina.com said the Web site www.top100.cn, which provides music searches and download services and is backed by Chinese NBA star Yao Ming, will probably cooperate with Google China.

China Internet Network Information Center reported that China had 253 million Internet users at the end of June, the most in the world. Among these users, 84.5 percent, or 214 million people, enjoy music through the Internet.

(CRI August 1, 2008)