Sohu.com (SOHU) has launched Sogou Version 2.5, a new product upgrade for Sohu's proprietary search engine found at Sogou.com.

Sohu's all-inclusive, proprietary search engine, Sogou, which means 'Search Dog' in Chinese, was initially launched in August 2004. The company then launched an upgraded version, Sogou 2.0, in February 2005, which allowed for more than one billion retrieved Chinese language pages, higher updating speed and shorter search time.

The newly upgraded Sogou 2.5 is an even more sophisticated version with advanced spider technology which will increase the search database to two billion retrieved pages and 800 million indexed pages after three weeks following the launch.

As a result, the company says Sogou 2.5 will have the largest Chinese language search database in the world. Sogou 2.5's advanced technology also triples page crawling speed and improves the speed of page updates to 100 million per day.

Charles Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Sogou 2.5 accomplished another successful upgrade of Sogou's entire technology system. With the enhanced page crawling speed and increased search database capacity as well as the combination with Sohu's portal matrix strength, Sogou 2.5 can find users the most up-to-date and relevant information online, greatly improving the overall user experience. Our focus remains on enhancing our search technology and interaction with users via continuous product upgrades and we believe Sogou's momentum will continue to strengthen going forward."

According to Sohu's internal reports, Sogou traffic grew 50% in the third quarter ended September 30, 2005 over the previous quarter. In addition to web page search, Sogou's mapping search, news search, music search and BBS search all enjoy strong popularity among our users.