China renews Google's internet licence

Google's internet licence has been renewed in China, after the company stopped automatically redirecting Google.cn users to its "uncensored" servers in Hong Kong. The world's largest ad broker added a brief update to its 28 June blog post in which it confirmed the licence renewal. "We are very pleased that the government has …

[bolccg]

Catch me up

So, basically, have google completely caved on this? They have gone back to the same censored search results that they said a few months ago, with much attendant press hype, they would no longer tolerate?

If so, weaksauce.

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

Google stopped serving censored results in the spring, and has not resumed.

Of course there is much more to it then that, and who knows what they had to agree to to get their license renewed, but they did not cave on the central issue.

[bolccg]

Thanks guys

Ok, cool, thanks for filling me in on that.

[jonathanb]

No

They haven't really caved in at all. If you go to google.cn, you get a picture of what looks like their search box, and when you click on it, you get redirected to google.com.hk

Underneath that there is in Chinese "google.com.hk Please add our website", and below that links to google music, google translate and google products which are hosted within the Chinese mainland.

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

When In Rome...

...take off the "I Love Greece" button.

Heck, it's China's football, if you don't like their rules, play elsewhere.

In america, if you sell poison food, you face years of investigations and lawyer's bills. In china they execute you.

Is either system better? Government is only as good as the humans in positions of power. At least both political systems separate church and state. (OK banning IS separation, after all.) We see truly evil government in countries where there is a state mandated religion.

China, i think, actually likes google, but they are very paranoid about information. Their is a 50+ year history of suppressing human rights, but, in fact, things there are better than the USA in some ways, and worse in others. Nobody's perfect. (My friend goes to Mainland china a few times a year, maybe i'll tag along next trip.) Today's leadership there really wants to help.

The United States government, on the other hand, has become slaves to the rich corporate bodies. Until we (i love being an american, don't get me wrong) figure out how to finance campaigns that cost multi-millions, our leaders are slaves to the greedy muthas (tm) that finance their campaigns.

</rant> <beer_consume> mmmmm__do_no_evil.

[Captain Thyratron]

I liked your post.

Could you just get rid of everything after the third sentence? I think it flows better that way.

[alwarming]

History repeats itself

A powerful govt rules the world, not just own country. Rewind 150 years and look at blighty. Rewind 50 years and look at USA.

China very well maybe that power in the future. And the DNA of that govt is sum of the experiences that brought it to power.

IMHO it's duty of the rest of the world to put China thru a learning curve that makes it

1) open

2) accountable for the methods, not just results..

So when our Chinese overlords take over this planet, they'll care for human rights, planet rights and the value of free spirit(*). OR be ready to see another Tienanmen square in Trafalgar square - without a google to report it.

Today China is buying businesses, real estate and law firms in US. It won't be long before the dragon looks at the Lions.

Al.

PS: by "spirit" I meant the "essence of a human being". But "booze" will do fine.

[Anonymous Coward]

pathetic

Money talks, Google silences.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do no evil...

...unless it starts to cost us money.

[Long Fei]

Strange

...cos I'm still redirected to HK. (From Beijing).

[the future is back!]

Google's Faustian Deal With China

In the "Washington Monthly" July/August 2010 Issue, read "The Agnostic Cartographer" by John Gravois (disclosure - married to wife's cousin) that details how Google serves up China-pleasing info on Google Earth from its China-Based servers but India-pleasing info when accessed in Indian (or most places other than China). Gravois builds his article around a discussion of Arunachal Pradesh, a mountainous region claimed by both countries and disputed for decades. So is Google "doing good?", "doing not good?". "doing us?", or what?

[Eduard Coli]

Ha

Google caves, why not , M$ caved.

Maybe someone can Google how to say bend over and spread them in Mandaren.

[Basic]

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

When I got to google.cn, I get served an image which looks like the search page but on clicking, it redirects to .hk

[silky]

the facts

some of you guys are so dumb.

Ggoogle hasn't caved and have pulled a nice one over Beijing to keep there license. quite simply they have stopped automaticaly redirecting people to HK. they are displaying a fake front page that cannot be ussed to search. if clicked on the page takes the user to the HK site that is uncensored and users can search from there. At that point CN's great fire wall blocks any pages that Beijing decide are not acceptable for public consumption. Google is not censoring, Beijing is. nice one Google, Yahoo and M$ should follow suit and make Beijing do their own dirty work.

[gimbal]

Keep on rockin' in the free world

I'm not going to play The Infamous Nanny about Google's decisions. If @Silky is right, I think they've made a smart move, within the constraints of the limited space they have available, in that climate. I'm sure it won't be the last word about the Chinese government's whitewashing of their national culture and history.