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Google's China Service Availability Page  (View post)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

Monday, March 22, 2010
14 years ago8,868 views

I can reproduce the google.cn to google.com.hk redirect from Germany, including for search result pages. A special welcome note is visible at the Hong Kong homepage reading "欢迎您来到谷歌搜索在中国的新家" (auto-translation: "Welcome to Google search in China's new home").

On a sidenote, Google China Music (http://www.google.cn/music/homepage) does not redirect though. Google Books neither (http://books.google.cn), though it is restricted in the sense that (last time I checked) it only includes mainland China publishers. Google News China (Mainland) does redirect to Hong Kong.

The service availability page looks roughly like I experienced it from mainland China, though it's worth noting that Picasa Web Albums was nearly completely unusable. If I remember correctly, the images didn't load and only the HTML skeleton did, rendering it useless (even though the mark "partial" on Google's availability page is thus correct).

Also worth noting that most of the time, accessing the (more or less) uncensored search results from google.com (and AFAIK the Chinese http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=zh-CN) also already used to worked from within mainland China.

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

I wonder what will become this Google's China-centric services:
- http://wenda.tianya.cn/
- http://laiba.tianya.cn
- http://www.google.cn/rebang/home
- http://www.265.com/
- http://shenghuo.google.cn/shenghuo/
- http://www.google.cn/music/homepage
Currently they are still available (from France) and non-redirected.

Ron [PersonRank 0]

14 years ago #

A billion implicit rights, do not mend one explicit wrong.

Andy Wong [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Google has been fighting hard to change the fact that the largest Internet population can view the smallest parts of the Internet, as the Chinese Communism Party has also fighting hard to protect one of its key foundations of power: distorting and blocking info.

Google failed the mission, and win a noble reputation.

r721 [PersonRank 1]

14 years ago #

I feel like Ethan Zuckerman was right in that old post:
http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2010/01/13/four-possible-explanations-for-googles-big-china-move/. His fourth explanation is:
"Google is about to join the front lines of the anticensorship wars.

Hal Roberts, John Palfrey and I published a study of tools designed to subvert and circumvent internet censorship a few months back, based on research we conducted over the course of three years. In the course of that research, we ended up with a simple realization about the design of censorship circumvention software:

A robust anti-censorship system has, at minimum, three components:
- Lots of non-contiguous IP addresses, making it difficult for censors to block the entry points into the system
- Huge amounts of bandwidth that can access the public internet, as a censorship circumvention system is basically an ISP
- Multiple methods to feed fresh IP addresses to your users
...
It’s very hard to obtain lots and lots of IP addresses, and very expensive to provision sufficient bandwidth… unless you’re Google, in which case, these obstacles should be trivial. There’s still lots of work that needs to be done ensuring that users of circumvention systems get fresh IP addresses, but a Google-backed anticensorship system (perhaps operated in conjunction with some of the smart activists and engineers who’ve targeted censorship in Iran and China?) would be massively more powerful (and threatening!) than the systems we know about today."

zach [PersonRank 1]

14 years ago #

But the thing i wonder is why google.com also redirect to google.com.hk from China mainland?

NQ Logic [PersonRank 1]

14 years ago #

A month ago, NQ Logic predicted that Google will move out of China. Today saw Google officially transplanting its Chinese base to its Hong Kong facilities. This value clash between an Internet company and an information-controlled country will continue to be present at every Multinational Technology executive board, and with Google’s disclosure, other U.S. technology companies will have a harder time to explain why they are still doing business in China.

For a better and complete understanding of the situation, NQ Logic encourages you to read "Google Vs. China" at www.nqlogic.com

Andy Wong [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

CCP has implemented an all or nothing switch against all Internet connections through the mainland China border a few years ago. In an event when CCP feel that its foundations of power (distorting and blocking info) get demolished, it would not hesitate to shut down all connections, regardless of coming loss of all kinds.

This is a kind of self fulfilling expectation: the ways of CCP protecting itself will accelerate the destruction of its own.

gb [PersonRank 1]

14 years ago #

google.com.hk already censored....

Juha-Matti Laurio [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

See http://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/technology/24google.xml

Adam Turner [PersonRank 0]

14 years ago #

Go Google! About time someone stood up to China's corrupt government!

Hong Xiaowan [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

google's market is in the main cities in china. in other market, few people know google.

also, censored or not is not important for chinese people, we know how to find the truth behind the news. we know how to cross the GFW.

this time, google did a right thing for me, censorship will bring some tech troubles, cost more money...if you are in internet business. I also want the GOV remove the censorship too.

also, many chinese know, google china, this time, is the poor political tool, google must do something for its country.

we do not think the political system from USA is the best, when China learned from USA, also bring many elements that we did not want.

Juha-Matti Laurio [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

From referenced http://blogoscoped.com/forum/169109.html#id169146
article
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/technology/24google.html

"Google pushed. Now China is pushing back.

The company’s problems in China escalated on Tuesday as its ties to some Chinese partners began to come apart and the government reacted angrily to Google’s attempt to bypass government censors.
...."

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

> But the thing i wonder is why google.com also
> redirect to google.com.hk from China mainland?

I cannot reproduce such a redirect from my location in China. Going to google.com shows no forward...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

I asked Google which domains' accessiblity specifically was monitored with their new status page (e.g. com.hk vs com). Here's their answer:

"This page offers a summary of Google service accessibility from within mainland China. It is not about accessibility for a specific domain. The goal is to show the availability of our services in China, and it is not currently designed to represent small-scale, temporary blocking based on sensitive queries."

I asked them a follow-up question because to know what symbol they would display if something is blocked for say com.hk but not com.

Ummon Karpe [PersonRank 0]

14 years ago #

Philipp, don't go to google.com. Go to google.cn (which is where chinese users would go), and you will be redirected to google.com.hk.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Ummon, what is your suggestion in reply to? I know that google.com doesn't redirect and google.cn does redirect.

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

Ummon may have seen my typo that was in the associated blog post for a couple of hours (four days ago) before Philipp noticed it and fixed it. I had written "com" instead of "cn" in one place.

George R [PersonRank 10]

14 years ago #

The status for "Mobile" changed from "No issues" to "Partially Blocked" on 3/28/10.

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