The Chinese term for these Internet detectives (“ renrou souxun ” or “ human flesh search engines ”) was coined in 2001 on MOP, one of China ’ s top two online forums. The term was the name of a dedicated subforum, originally intended to provide a place for users to ask each other questions and find more accurate answers more quickly through the power of the crowd.
人肉搜索一詞，最早為 2001 年源自於中國兩大網路論壇之一的「貓撲網」，其中一個命名為「人肉搜索」的專屬版面，原意為鼓勵網友互相提問，並透過人工搜尋以得到更準確有效的解答。