BEIJING -- When asked how he would spend a day without the Internet, "lost-web", a young man from the southern coastal city of Shenzhen, responded that he would feel "blind".

His theory was tested on the morning of January 12 when baidu, a major Chinese search engine website, went offline briefly for a few hours due to an alleged cyber attack.

It sparked panic among "Baiduholics" like "lost-web", who baidued everything, sometimes even without realizing it.

He said he couldn't help searching the Internet for information on everything, from business and daily entertainment, to pop star gossip and even the breed of cat you might see on the street.

Hudong.com, a Chinese online encyclopedia, has an entry called "Internet searching dependence", which characterizes three "no-needs" for this behavior: no need to memorize, no need to think and no need to draft documents. The reason is simple --- everything is available and accessible on the Internet.

But such convenience isn't always a good thing.

One typical concern raised was the overconfidence of netizens about their medical knowledge acquired from online sources, which could lead to misdiagnosis, said doctor "Liefeng" (meaning "gale").

Doctors in northern China's Tianjin at first were surprised when patients came in keenly aware about what was happening to them, and also knew several medical terms, even on subjects not specifically known to the public. Then they discovered that people had already "baidued" it before going to the clinics, wrote Liu Chong with the Tianjin's Bohai Morning newspaper earlier this month.

"It is good to learn from the Internet, but when it comes to medical treatment or the use of drugs, they should consult with professionals", the report said.

The young generation brought up in the Internet era seems to have reached a more crucial situation with imminent risks, at least according to their parents and teachers.

Teachers were often annoyed by pupils using search engines to find answers, rather than working them out by thinking independently.   "Using a search engine excessively does not help to exploit a child's potential", said Zhao, a primary school math teacher in Beijing. She found that pupils often made mistakes while copying a wrong answer found online and that at least a few of the students made identical mistakes.

Chinese netizens born after 2000 now exceeds 4.2 million, according to the country's first report on the use of the Internet by minors, published in June. Their way of thinking is being shaped by the use of the Internet and search engines.

How to help them to properly use search engines seems to have become an increasingly important issue. Some experts have even created pioneering theories, such as the "search quotient" or SQ to highlight the importance of using search engines properly and wisely.

Chen Pei, CEO of a Chinese-based search company Zhongsou.com, wrote in his 2006 book titled "SQ: the third ability of human", that  online searches offered more that just information. They provided a sense of order and of "being in the know", if used properly.

He argued that the ability to find information effectively and efficiently was even more important than the information itself.

A recent finding by Prof. Yang Boxu with Peking University also estimated that "searching online could make people smarter".

They just had to develop the skills of filtering, discerning and integrating information found online, said Yang.

China, the country with the largest Internet-using population of more than 420 million, provides a vast search engine market and an increasing number of players are trying to tap into it.

Also, popular local providers such as baidu.com, sogou.com and youdao.com are now facing new rivals.

Goso.com was founded in June by the official People's Daily while Xinhua News Agency also signed a joint venture contract with China Mobile to incorporate a new search company.