Thursday, April 10, 2008

Google China Shows Olympic Torch Run

Google Maps China has put up a mini site showing the location of the Olympic torch that’s currently being carried over the globe in preparation for the China Olympics. The mini site also links to Google Image search, mobile search, Google Earth, language tools, and coverage over at China’s CCTV. When you click on the torch icon on the map an info box pops up with pictures*, videos from CCTV coverage, text, and related links.

As CCTV is organizationally a sub-ministry of the China government – within the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, as Wikipedia explains – the protests in relation to the Tibet issue which surround the torch relay, and are a big focus in many Western media, are omitted almost entirely or entirely on Google’s mini site (I wasn’t able to spot any protests in the video showing the torch run in France, for instance, though I heard – on German TV – that China’s stations sometimes do show brief clips of the protests after main coverage).

[Thanks Xujie!]

*The pictures are disclosed to be from Panaramio, but that might just be a misspelling of Google-acquired Panoramio.

Update: A similar page is also available in English, but lacks the videos, CCTV partnership and so on. [Thanks Ionut!]

Google China Shows Olympi ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (3+3)

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