The present invention discloses a search-based segmentation method and device for a language without a word boundary tag. The inventive method includes the steps of: a. providing at least one search engine with a segment of a text including at least one segment; b. searching for the segment through the at least one search engine, and returning search results; and c. selecting a word segmentation approach for the segment in accordance with at least part of the returned search results. The invention solves the problems of word segmentation for a language without a word boundary tag, and thus combat the limitations of the prior art in terms of flexibility, dependence upon coverage of dictionaries, available training data corpuses, processing of a new word, etc.