Google in China

[Jeff-20]

On the topic of censorship in China via Google, I don't see what the big deal is. Of course, banned topics include the independence of Taiwan, events of Tianemen Square, Fa lu Gong, etc. Nothing of which any Chinese person would be unaware.

I've heard that eight percent of China is on the internet (still making it the second largest group on the internet!) One would think that any kid savvy enough to use google would simply go to google.com rather than google.cn to get the uncensored versions.

I'm just saying. . .

[vic user]

I wish they would leave Tibet alone

chris

[6502dude]

One would think that any kid savvy enough to use google would simply go to google.com rather than google.cn to get the uncensored versions.

I don't know China's internet backbone topology, but my guess is that the government controls all the NAPS for country for inbound/oubound traffic, and controll all top level DNS servers in China.

Also, Google likely has blockage set up based on reverse ip lookup for google.com domain, to block requests from China. Showtime http://www.sho.com/site/homepage/index.do (US satellite TV channel does this to prevent Canadians from viewing their pages.

There is always IP spoofing and/or routing through compromised networks.

However, I suspect there are enough preventive measures in place to prevent the average guy/gal in China from reaching google.com

[MacbthPSW]

Also, Google likely has blockage set up based on reverse ip lookup for google.com domain, to block requests from China. Showtime http://www.sho.com/site/homepage/index.do (US satellite TV channel does this to prevent Canadians from viewing their pages.

Google itself is a good example for us Canadians too - it's been years since I've been able to get to google.com - I'm always diverted to google.ca.

[Leeeeee]

Also, Google likely has blockage set up based on reverse ip lookup for google.com domain, to block requests from China. Showtime http://www.sho.com/site/homepage/index.do (US satellite TV channel does this to prevent Canadians from viewing their pages

It prevents anyone outside the US from veiwing their pages however, having never used a remote proxy personally before, it took me less than 20 minutes to find a proxy in the US and gain access to the site (the front page is advertising "The L word" new episodes, Sundays 10pm).

If I can do it there must be a few 100 million chinese who can and I'll bet some of them are internet connected.

Lee.

[Leeeeee]

Google itself is a good example for us Canadians too - it's been years since I've been able to get to google.com - I'm always diverted to google.ca.

Use http://216.239.39.99/

Lee.

[Schema]

http://www.google.ca/ has a "Go to Google.com" link for me, at the bottom of the page.

[carlsson]

Perhaps the Chinese government keeps track of all known proxies, so you can't reach those neither. For what it is worth, all ISPs may be required to keep detailed logs about which pages the customers visit, and either the ISP or the customer may get in serious trouble if any unwanted pages are noticed. My former boss is Chinese and he should have a clue how things work back home.

On the topic of Google, it has also been reported that their translation and ways to fit the linguistic thinking (?) for searching in Chinese wasn't as good as it could be, so domestic competitors gained market shares.

[Mikam73]

I did read about Google and China today too. Heard thet there is lot internet cops..

Some pages surf you in to jail.. Sad really.

[6502dude]

I did read about Google and China today too. Heard thet there is lot internet cops..

Some pages surf you in to jail.. Sad really.

A friend of mine is an expatriate working as CFO for a manufacturing firm in China.

He indicates that the "Public Security Office" has over 40,000 people screening content.

Even if folks do get a link to an "undesirable site", the pages generally can not be reached.

Likely government is blocking IP addresses in their routing tables.

[Jeff-20]

Goolgle.cn has a link to Google.com at the bottom of the page. Wouldn't "undesireable" sites still be available via the english site as cached files? Or is that just from my american connection?

[carlsson]

Maybe google.com is unreachable (IP wise) from within China, but for Chinese speaking people abroad, they have the alternative. I read today that Google gets a fair share of badmouthing in various blogs around the world because they implement censoring of which pages can be found by the search engine within China. For comparison, Yahoo and Microsoft also censor, but they don't speak about it.

If you enter a market and have two options; follow the rules set by government (censor) or be declared illegal business (not unheard of) and get kicked out completely, I think most business oriented people would choose to censor, no matter if they like it or not. After all, it is the second largest potential consumer group in the world, with an (two) unique language and culture. It may take a while for the big scale perestrojka to happen, but perhaps in 10 years, China is a completely different country than today. Google may be long gone in 10 years, or ultimate market leader. If they chose to stay out of China for honorable reasons, there would be a handful giant competitors who may even have established themselves abroad. Better to play by the rules, be open about what they do and hope for the future.

[Jeff-20]

But I can't help but think how the immediate bad PR will affect stock values. Google already took its first drop with controversy over the US government requesting private information about google users (they wanted to know what words were being searched in an effort to track illegal porn, etc.)