As I had predicted in my previous post, Google has stopped censoring it’s search results, and has pulled out of China. However, the plot-twist comes in the manner which Google pulled out!
It decided to leave a lot of it’s R&D facilities, as well as mobile and a few other of it’s holdings in the maindland, and the google.cn, although shut down, is now being redirected to it’s Hong Kong servers at google.hk. Allowing Google to still serve Chinese people with uncensored results from within China.
I have to say this was an interesting move and kind of the best option left for Google, after cornering itself with the announcements of pulling out and uncensoring. This will allow it to operate within China, and abide by the unique laws in Hong Kong which allow it to stop censoring it’s results.
It’s not all Green on the other side of China, however. Google now potentially faces being blocked from within the mainland and it’s search results not being available, as well as it faces challenges in transfer speed across the mainland.
To read more about Google’s Official Announcement, check out http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html
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