Acording to several reports and data from Google, the search engine is fully blocked in mainland China as of today.
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Also fully blocked are ads and mobile access. Image search is
partially blocked, as are Google Docs, Google News and Google Groups.
Other sites and apps that were previously and remain blocked include YouTube, search suggestions, Google Sites, Blogger and Picasa.
Google and China have been at odds since at least the beginning of this year, when a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” was conducted on Google’s corporate infrastructure; the attack originated in China. As a result, the search engine, which had been serving censored search results to comply with the demands of the Chinese government, announced it would no longer be modifying search results.
The company said it would even be willing to pull out of China altogether if search results were to be censored.
However
tense relations were between the company and the country,
negotiations continued — even past the point where some felt that
Google’s stand for freedom of information had been compromised. Our Ben
Parr wrote in March:
Now, however, it seems China/Google relations have once again broken down.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told press earlier this month, “Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government. I don’t want anyone to be confused about that.”
The only confusion we at Mashable have surrounds questions of timing: Why now? What new developments have caused China to change its position on Google?
As Google continues to lose market share in China to competitor Baidu, we’re sure a few Googlers are wondering the same thing. We’ve reached out to the company for comment and will update this post as more details become available.
UPDATE: A Google spokesperson has told us, “Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage. That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.”
Let’s hope Google and China maintain this rather tenuous status quo. YouTube, search suggestions, Google Sites, Blogger and Picasa are still fully blocked, and other services and features are partially blocked.
Other sites and apps that were previously and remain blocked include YouTube, search suggestions, Google Sites, Blogger and Picasa.
Google and China have been at odds since at least the beginning of this year, when a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” was conducted on Google’s corporate infrastructure; the attack originated in China. As a result, the search engine, which had been serving censored search results to comply with the demands of the Chinese government, announced it would no longer be modifying search results.
The company said it would even be willing to pull out of China altogether if search results were to be censored.
After Google was hacked, it was put in between a rock and a hard place. Its actions, while still bold, will not change how things are done in China. Its indecisiveness with how to proceed has made the pressure on China all but evaporate.Earlier this month, we were told that China and Google had reached a satisfactory conclusion to the search-and-censorship negotiations; Chinese authorities had renewed Google’s Internet Content Provider (ICP) license after the company found a loophole which allowed them to display search results and also allowed China’s Golden Shield Project (a.k.a. the Great Firewall) to block those links at will.
Now, however, it seems China/Google relations have once again broken down.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt told press earlier this month, “Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government. I don’t want anyone to be confused about that.”
The only confusion we at Mashable have surrounds questions of timing: Why now? What new developments have caused China to change its position on Google?
As Google continues to lose market share in China to competitor Baidu, we’re sure a few Googlers are wondering the same thing. We’ve reached out to the company for comment and will update this post as more details become available.
UPDATE: A Google spokesperson has told us, “Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage. That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.”
Let’s hope Google and China maintain this rather tenuous status quo. YouTube, search suggestions, Google Sites, Blogger and Picasa are still fully blocked, and other services and features are partially blocked.
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