Google: Search Actually Not Blocked in China

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 30, 2010 - 7:23am.

Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has backed away from its claim yesterday that its search engine was blocked from users in mainland China, saying a system it set up to automatically track availability of its services in China had misrepresented the situation, the Associated Press reported.

"It's possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage," Google told AP.

"That seems to be what happened [Thursday] when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally."

Google set up the system to monitor availability of its services in China several months ago, after it decided to stop censoring search results at the behest of the Chinese government.

The company appeared to have smoothed relations with China recently, when the government there approved a renewal of Google's license to publish Internet content in the country.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2vx74q4 (AP)

http://tinyurl.com/2dwuljl (DMW previous coverage)