That's that: Google.cn Is No More
Google.cn is no more, and now redirects to Google.com.hk.
Google has been in the spotlight recently over its consideration to end its operations in China. All came to light when Google stated that some of its services--like Gmail--were hacked from someone within China.
The search giant then announced that it would consider closing its doors in China over censorship, sparking heated debate with the Chinese government. Since then, speculation over when Google close its China doors have run rampant. Today however, Google flipped the switch and has ceased all censoring in China. Google reps indicated that it would still keep some offices open for busines.
From Google's official blog:
On January 12, we announced on this blog that Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers. We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger—had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn.
So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk. Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.
Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced—it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China.
In terms of Google's wider business operations, we intend to continue R&D work in China and also to maintain a sales presence there, though the size of the sales team will obviously be partially dependent on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk. Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that none of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them. Despite all the uncertainty and difficulties they have faced since we made our announcement in January, they have continued to focus on serving our Chinese users and customers. We are immensely proud of them.
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I love you Google, human rights is not something to be taken lightly!!! I really do love you!
It's a step in the right direction. Censorship anywhere is an affront to liberty everywhere. GG google.
Google 1 China 0
Good.. That sort of censorship is bad anyways. I hate how governments try to control people.
Google obviously doesn't care about human rights, only one motivation : more money
Google, destabilizing nations since 2010
And, the world is still spinning...
"Google reps indicated that it would still keep some offices open for busines." - Gee I wonder how long it will take before these building are surrounded by "soldiers" with no 'official' relation to the Chinese government
Honestly, Google has the right to do this. Censorship just shouldn't happen (although it's good for parents vs kids, @China - your citizens are not children, they can think for themselves now.)
Google obviously doesn't care about human rights, only one motivation : more money
Would you care to explain how giving up market share in China causes Google to increase profits? If anything, Google is probably going to loose money on this.
Something is going to hit the fan soon it seems..
And in branding terms Google is not losing on its decision, it is gaining market shares in the West due to taking a stance
Google obviously doesn't care about human rights, only one motivation : more money
Your ID says it all, go back to smoking your dope. You post holds no water since you haven't backed up anything you said. Back up your comments with facts or don't post at all.
Anyway, I'm glad to see Google take this step.
I wonder how the Chinese government will react and whether there will be repercussions.
GOOOOooooo Goggle, BBbuuuuuuuu Chinaaa
I wonder how the Chinese government will react and whether there will be repercussions.
Google forgot that China is ruling HK, Google will get kicked out HK also.
Did anyone own Baidu Stock, I did, it rocked 100%. Yeah, I think Google should get out Asia.
Unfortunately, if Google leaves, it only makes it easier for the Chinese govt to keep its death grip on its citizens.
when profit headache ratio drops below a certain level, time to pull the plug. Thumbs up anyway.
China asking Google to Censor the internet is well..... quite an impossible task. Just how does one censor the internet and have at least some form of Internet? The net is TOO HUGE to censor effectively and unless China wants to cut all internet communication off from the world, they gotta deal with the fact that the Internet is one form of media they can't control what is being said.
Good for Google not to put up with such ridiculous demands to offer such a stripped down version of their product.
You can't stop the signal
At the same time google made a smart political move: Hong Kong is chinese territory, but, having been transferred from the UK, just like Macau has over from Portugal, they have a special, less strict, regime. They are just showing the people in mainland China how weird this form of Communism can be. It's a smart move, but, alas, I doubt it will last long, China will block the site to mainland China.
Your ID says it all, go back to smoking your dope. You post holds no water since you haven't backed up anything you said. Back up your comments with facts or don't post at all. Anyway, I'm glad to see Google take this step.
Has anyone ever explained to you what a troll is?
Oh, right, because implying that you're a marijuana user also implies that you're an ignorant fool. Hypocrite much? I wont go much farther than that though, I would rather not try to debate about pot on a tech forum.
ANYHOW, I fully support what google has done. Unfortuntely, this will probably not change China's perception on censorship, or their people's rights.
I can't wait to see China's Response. Go Google!!
Google forgot that China is ruling HK
"We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services."
Google knows, and is just waiting to see what happens, which is the purpose of the service monitoring site.
Tomorrow's Headline: "China declares War on United States of America, Google to blame"
Unfortunately, if Google leaves, it only makes it easier for the Chinese govt to keep its death grip on its citizens.
Don't forget that ultimately it's the people who can and will bring down the CCP sooner or later. The public will not tolerate a remake of the events of the summer of 1989, no matter how many tanks the Party will roll out on them - the point is, the breaking point will come with little things such as what you're seeing happening now. The Chinese people of today are not the Chinese people of 1989 where they could be fooled with terms like "counter-revolution", etc! No matter how silly this may sound, Empires have ended as a result of events put into motion by rather insignificant things.
Google is awesome.
Actually, I think China wins this round. One more 'Western influence' out of the way and less money for Google. And it's only a 'moral win' for 80% of the people in the United States who think they know better than everybody else (but still buy products made in China everyday).
Something is going to hit the fan soon it seems..And in branding terms Google is not losing on its decision, it is gaining market shares in the West due to taking a stance
I don't know how much more market share Google will gain, but this kind of move definitely won't hurt Google here in the west. I wonder how long before China blocks the mainland from Google Hong Kong.
we need a southpark episode about this PLZ !!! O_o
Yay for free speech however keep in mind that google once not to long ago accepted the strict rules enforced by the chinese government ... google has a very small market penetration (the figures i read on the internet are between 4 and 16%) thus running their servers in china is costing them money and gaining them nothing.
Stopping the censorship they them self enforced for the past few years wins them a lot of goodwill and gives them on paper the perfect reason to leave china. Google leaves not because they suddenly came to their senses and stopped censorship they left because they no longer wanted to waste money on a market they can not penetrate for a multitude of reasons number one being that people are creatures of habit and dont change search engines often.
omnimodis78:
If by CCP you mean the USSR or CCCP (former soviet union) either you dont know who was in this union or the people of china will soon revolt and strike down on a a union that has fell apart since 1991
omnimodis78:If by CCP you mean the USSR or CCCP (former soviet union) either you dont know who was in this union or the people of china will soon revolt and strike down on a a union that has fell apart since 1991
You could have seen from the context what he meant.. CCCP is dead, but CCP is not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China
Anyway.. thumbs up Google
PepiX:
) http://tinyurl.com/ycu3px4
Thats why i started with "if" it never came to my mind that people could use another acronym for the CPC. My bad i used google's define: thing to look for ccp http://tinyurl.com/yc36lbl ironically google gives nothing usefull for cpc either (other then communistic party of canada maybe and thats the second hit