Google Admits China was a Mistake.

Google back pedals on China

"Do No Evil" With Chinese Characteristics

... When using the Chinese Google to search for "sensitive words" like Falungong and Tiananmen, the following message is displayed at the bottom of the search result page: 据当地法律法规和政策，部分搜索结果未予显示. It means "To comply with local laws, regulations and policies, some search results are not displayed".

That message is a clear indication to anyone with curiosity that there are more juicy offerings about that subject in the big bad world of the international Internet. Google's American-hosted servers are still accessible from China at Google.com ...

The self-righteous anger is absurd. People who say Google should pull out of China rather than offer a censored service do not use the Internet in China ...

Danwei confirms what I thought - Google.cn with servers in China is censored. But Google.com and its simplified Chinese version which are powered by servers outside China are still open to mainland Chinese users. It is up to Chinese netizens to choose. Of course if they are searching for Chinese entertainment news they would use Google.cn because presumably it would be more stable. What is more interesting (paradoxical, perhaps) is that when one is searching for Tiananmen for travel arrangements with Google.cn, he will find a reminder that the search results are censored. So as Danwei observes, the message may well be seen as "a stand against censorship in a small way".

* * *

A censored Google.cn is doing much better than Baidu, a Beijing-based Nasdaq-listed market leader, in advancing the flow of information. I did a search of "六四" (June 4, the date of the Tiananmen massacre) at both Google.cn and Baidu in Hong Kong. True, one can find nothing "politically incorrect" at the disinfected Google.cn. But at least one is informed about the fact that the search results have been censored.

--

Regards;
VK Pandey