Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc. and the German luxury car maker BMW have signed an agreement to jointly develop and operate technical products related to in-car information system search services.

Netherlands-based TomTom has signed a deal with China's AutoNavi Holdings Limited to form a joint venture in China.

China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping has published its review comments for the Class A mapping qualification on its official website and has approved 13 companies, including Baidu.com and Sogou.com, to operate Internet map services in China.

A representative from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping of China has revealed that the bureau will issue the first batch of licenses to Chinese Internet map service providers in June 2010.

Zhejiang province's first comprehensive Internet platform focusing on rural tourism, zhejiang.com.cn, has been formally launched.

Information from China's national meeting of directors at the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping shows that following the completion of China's first digital city geospatial framework construction project, the country plans to build 100 digital cities to promote its overall geospatial framework construction.

Mangocity.com, which is owned by China Travel Service (Holdings) Hong Kong Ltd., has launched its new homepage, air ticket channel and hotel channel.

According to reports in local media, Google has unilaterally canceled development of its gPhone with China Unicom and two other handsets manufacturers in China, marking another major adjustment following the announcement of its possible withdrawal from China's search engine market.

Chinese Internet company Tencent has launched a web-based version of its instant messaging product QQ, which allows its users to use the service without any installation of software.

Google China has announced that Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, global vice president of Google and president for Google China, has resigned and will depart from the search engine company in the middle of September 2009.

Chinese budget hotel chain 7 Days Inn — not to be confused with a similarly named American chain whose old moniker was Days Inn — has announced the trial operation of a social networking site "Happy 7 Days" at its official website.

Chinese telecom operator China Telecom has signed a strategic framework agreement with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation in Beijing to cooperate in satellite communication and GPS sectors.

During the Baidu Technology Innovation Conference held this week, Robin Li, CEO of Baidu.com, published the company's new concept named "box computing" for the first time.

Chinese search engine provider Baidu.com has formally launched a travel page at lvyou.baidu.com in time for the Labor Day holiday to provide travel information collection services.

Seven Chinese government departments, including the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, have jointly announced plans to start a one-year campaign to promote a nationwide rectification of China's geographical information market and to fight illegal surveying and illegal publication of Internet maps.