Google today announced that they stopped censoring Google services in China, something that many Internet users did not believe they would be doing even though they made it very clear that it was a possibility. As of today Google Search, Google News and Google Images search are delivering censor free search results to Chinese people.
The google.cn domain has been redirected to google.com.hk, the Google Search engine of Hong Kong. Users from Chinese mainland are automatically redirected to the Hong Kong search engine which is displayed in simplified Chinese to them.
Google mentioned further that they will carefully monitor the situation as it can very well be that the Chinese government decides to block access to the Google search engine and other Google services in the future.
Users from all over the world can take a look at the new Google China Service Availability page that displays status information about Google Services in China. It will in particular tell visitors if Google services such as Google Search, Youtube, Gmail, Blogger or Picasa are accessible, blocked or partially blocked.
The Google service availability page will be updated daily to reflect changes in the availability. It is interesting that Google decided to go forward with it as it surely means that they will lose some money and probably even access to the Chinese market completely.
What’s your opinion on the matter? Good or bad move by Google?
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Great and informative blog! I just would like to give you a tip…it would be great if you put a date somewhere on your pages…it’s frustrating when you read an article that starts with ” Google today anounced ..” and you have no idea if what you’re reading is a fresh page or one of the gazillion old useless pages from 1995 you often cross when surfing the net…you get what I mean?
Yes I know what you mean. You can however take a look at the url of the page you are own to see on which date it was posted.
…but then again, if there is a date somewhere, I’m sorry, I must have missed it…it’s getting late…
Google is in the process of alienating a whole lot of people here in China. Their belligerence can well result in no one in China being able to access any Google products.
Drop the American arrogance and recognize the fact that you are a guest in China and must behave as a guest. If you cannot behave as a guest, get the hell out.
Contrary to your perceptions, the majority of the Chinese are not affected by the censorship rules of China. You are taking sides with an extremely small minority of Chinese who are not supported by the vast majority of Chinese people.
chinese gov must have funded you a lot.
No funding involved at all. I live with, work with and talk with Chinese people every day and censorship is definitely not one of their concerns. Fact of the matter, their greatest concern is the repeated attempts of Americans in particular, trying to impose their standards, beliefs and life styles on them.
In many ways, the Chinese are like the majority of Americans. They all believe the propaganda that their government feeds them, and are not concerned about anything else outside of their own narrow spheres of life. They have no respect for the dissidents or those who are calling for more freedom and democracy. They can see where the American form of democracy is not conducive to harmony and understanding.
I think that the us government did some compensation to Google,
Anyway this is my favorite tech blog, I don’t care what Google does with politics.
Why am I supposed to be interested in this?? I see references to it all over the Web. It is none of my concern.Last time I checked, I am not Chinese.
Well I’m Chinese. And IT’S ABOUT TIME! I love all those self professed “chinese” that loves to oppress the Mainland Chinese. Shut down their voice, block their information, blind their eyes to truths, seize their ancestral homes for “development”, kidnap their children for brick kilns, poison their food (too stupid to realize that their own children is eating/drinking the same poison), et al.
Block their access to truths and everything is “fine”. There’re no problems. The Chinese needs to be saved from the “chinese”.
And I for one am now going to start using more Google services. Am already paying for international Google Voice. Will not mind paying for more services from folks with a backbone in their conscience.
China needs its own homegrown search engine, with built in switches for degrees of truth, censorship and nationalistic pride. That’s why we will soon be launching choogling.com
See details at http://chinareallysucks.com/Site/New_Stuff/Entries/2010/3/29_Google_goes%2C_but_you_can_keep_on_Choogling.html