Baidu MCP Plaza: a distribution platform that connects AI applications to Baidu's search traffic

Baidu MCP Square is an open platform designed for developers to help them connect the AI apps or services they develop with Baidu Search's huge user traffic. At the core of the platform is MCP (Model Context Protocol), an open standard protocol for communicating large language models and external data sources. Through this platform, developers can have their applications understood by Baidu's AI search engine and accurately distributed to users with relevant needs. The platform not only simplifies the access process of AI applications, but also provides various forms of support such as traffic, arithmetic, and cash to help developers validate their business models and realize growth. Currently, several AI applications have been docked with Baidu Search through MCP Square, covering a wide range of scenarios such as AI touched-up papers, AI-generated videos, AI paintings and AI-generated PPTs.

Function List

• Rapid access and distribution: Once the app is accessed, it can be distributed to Baidu's dual-end search scenarios on PC and App, covering both regular search and AI search traffic.
• Precise Traffic Matching: Utilizing large models to deeply understand user needs and application functions to achieve accurate matching between applications and users.
• MCP ecosystem: MCP, as an industry-leading open standard, solves the problem of inconsistency in the implementation style of AI tools, and builds a secure, bi-directional link between big models and data sources.
• Developer Support Program: Baidu Search Open Platform provides exclusive incentives for developers, including traffic, arithmetic and cash subsidies, to help developers grow quickly.
• Diverse partners: The platform has already partnered with a number of AI applications, such as ReadPaper (AI essay touch-ups), Vidu (AI literate videos), Canva Paintable (AI paintings) and ChatPPT (online PPT generation).

Using Help

For developers looking to plug their AI apps into the Baidu search ecosystem, MCP Square offers a relatively standardized process.

1. Registering and creating applications
First of all, developers need to register and login on the official website of MCP Plaza. After entering the platform, you can find the entrance of "Create Application", click on it and follow the guidelines to fill in the basic information of the application, including the application name, function description, service address and so on. This information is crucial for the subsequent understanding of your application by the big model, so you need to describe the core functions of the application as accurately and clearly as possible.

2. Understanding and implementing the MCP protocol
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is at the heart of the entire platform. It is a set of open standards for standardizing the communication between the big models and external tools (i.e. your application). Developers need to modify their apps appropriately to make them support the MCP protocol according to the official technical documentation provided. This means that your app needs to be able to respond to requests from the Baidu search engine in a specific format and return data in the appropriate format.
For example, the Baidu Maps API is a service provider compatible with the MCP protocol, which provides interfaces for AI intelligences to geocode, route planning, weather queries, and more. Your app needs to implement similar standardized interfaces to be called by Baidu's big models.

3. Application access and commissioning
After completing the application transformation, the developer needs to submit the MCP service address of the application to the platform and conduct the co-bonding test. The platform will provide corresponding debugging tools and documents to help developers check the correctness of the protocol implementation. During the testing process, you can simulate a request from Baidu search and observe whether your app can respond correctly and return the expected results. This step is key to ensure that the application will run stably after it goes live.

4. Go-live and distribution
Once the app passes the review and testing, it is ready to go live. Baidu's big model will start analyzing your app's functionality and match it with users' search queries. When the user's needs are highly relevant to your app's functionality, your app will appear in the search results in some form to reach potential users. For example, when a user searches for "help me draw a picture", Baidu may call the Canva Draw app to fulfill the user's need.

5. Developer support
Throughout the access and operation process, developers can apply for the "AI Open Program" support provided by the Baidu Search Open Platform. The program is designed to help developers solve various problems they may encounter in the early stages, including providing initial traffic support, arithmetic power subsidies, and even cash rewards, in order to accelerate the commercialization of the application verification and growth.

With the above steps, developers can utilize Baidu MCP Square to connect their innovative AI applications with massive user demand and achieve rapid growth.

application scenario

1. Content creation assistance
   Applications such as AI writing, AI painting or AI video generation can be accessed. When a user searches Baidu for "write a short article about summer" or "generate a cyberpunk-style city night scene", the platform can distribute these needs to the corresponding AI applications to complete.
2. Office efficiency tools
   Provides PPT generation, mind map production, document analysis and other functions of the application. Users searching for "how to quickly create a PPT on market analysis" can directly call the access to ChatPPT and other tools to instantly generate content to meet the needs.
3. Specialty Area Search
   Industry-specific AI applications, such as legal contract review, medical report interpretation or financial data analysis. When users have professional needs such as "help me see if this contract is risky", the platform can connect to professional AI legal counsel applications to provide preliminary analysis.
4. Life Service Tools
   Applications that provide route planning, weather checking, photo restoration and other services. For example, based on the Baidu map service compatible with the MCP protocol, the AI assistant can directly answer questions such as "how to get from here to the airport in the fastest way" and provide detailed navigation solutions.

QA

1. What is the MCP protocol?
   MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an industry-leading open standard designed to build secure, standardized two-way links between large language models and external data sources or tools. It solves the problem of inconsistency in the implementation style of various tools in the development community, and allows AI models to call external services more easily and securely.
2. What are the benefits of accessing MCP Plaza for developers?
   The main benefit is access to hundreds of millions of dollars of accurate traffic support from Baidu Search. In addition, the platform provides subsidies such as arithmetic and cash, and lowers the development threshold through a standardized access process to help AI application developers quickly validate their products and achieve user growth.
3. Can any type of AI app be accessed?
   The platform welcomes AI application developers of all types to join. From the existing partners, it covers a wide range of fields such as content creation, office efficiency, professional consulting and life services. As long as your application can meet the specific needs of users and can be developed following the MCP protocol, you will have the opportunity to access it.
4. Is there a charge for accessing the platform?
   The official website's introduction doesn't explicitly mention a fee model, but mentions various forms of support and subsidies for developers. You may need to contact Baidu officials directly for details on the specific cooperation and charging strategy.