I’ve been writing about this several times already and last week Google was 99.9% certain to shut down in China – now it seems they finally made the decision to go ahead and stop the censorship of search results on Chinese Google.cn.
For now, Google.cn is being redirected to the Google based in Hong Kong, which is not subject to censuring.
Google is keeping their office in China in order to sell ads, but if access to Google.cn is being shut down, they will consider shutting down their office as well.
I’m afraid this is a battle that Google cannot win, China will never cut down on their censorship because of an American company. But I still think it’s a nice move from Google to show China and the rest of the world, that censorship is not the way forward.
This is good news and bad news. While I’m glad Google stood up to China, the end result is still the same: content will be censored.
Plus, Google only has around 1/3rd of the search market in China. Owners of websites that China censors still won’t be able to reach Chinese citizens no matter what.
.-= Perry´s last blog ..raised-bed-vegetable-gardening =-.
That’s true Perry, but I like the signal that Google is sending with this.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google China Redirect Now Also Censured =-.
I think Google is unsecured in China and has to increase its security and privacy modes.
.-= SmashinGeeks´s last blog ..Best Way To Display Feed Subscribers In Text Counts =-.
I’m not sure I follow you, what do you mean by Google is unsecured in China? 🙂
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google China Redirect Now Also Censured =-.
That is a good news for all the chinese people.
.-= Palabuzz´s last blog ..Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera spending some time on Benguet this Holy Week =-.
Yeah – except it only lasted for a few hours 🙁 See this link:
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google China Redirect Now Also Censured =-.
That is very interesting, and I can imagine there must be a lot than meets the eye here, as Google is an open source to all.
.-= Ana Goncalves´s last blog ..Blossoming wisdom =-.
Hi Ana. I’m not actually sure Google is “open source”, as many of the things going on behind what we see on Google, might not be visible to the public 🙂 Also because of search engine optimization. If we all knew exactly how google ranks sites, then everybody would optimize to rank best and their algorithm wouldn’t be worth much anymore.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google China Redirect Now Also Censured =-.
So does that mean that anyone in China can’t access Google.com? What if they used and overseas provider rather than a Chinese one, or is that a silly question?
Anyway, it’s nice to see that Google decided to take a stand.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Update On Sponsored Tweets As To It’s Money Making Potential =-.
I think the entire Internet out of China is censured – I saw on the news last night that even Facebook and Twitter is blocked from within China. Google just redirected traffic to Google.cn to Google.com.hk (Hong Kong), but a few hours later, the Chinese government started their own censorship of Google search results from Google Hong Kong too. Up until yesterday, it was Google’s job of censuring search results.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Google China Redirect Now Also Censured =-.
Seeing as how I can’t see Google winning against China, perhaps their only option is to pull out.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Update On Sponsored Tweets As To It’s Money Making Potential =-.
for sure they will try other options to take part of huge China market.
I just read article regarding Google starting China ban from 5 april 2010. I don’t know if this is really true but I guess it will follow some buzz over net. China market is important for Google and for sure they will find a way to get it’s share.