The US search leader said Tuesday it would stop automatically redirecting Chinese users to an unfiltered site in Hong Kong, a process it began in March in response to state censorship and cyberattacks it claims came from China.

The change in tack in the world's biggest online market was aimed at addressing government complaints about the censorship issue and came just before its Internet Content Provider licence was up for renewal Wednesday.

Marsha Wang, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Google, said the company was still waiting for a response from the central government on the licence issue.

"We will keep communicating with (the government) to see what information it will give us," she told AFP.

AFP calls to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is the main regulator of China's Internet industry and the agency responsible for the business licensing decision, were not answered.

Google said Tuesday that all mainland users would now be directed to a new landing page on google.cn, which links to the Hong Kong site.

"It's clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable -- and that if we continue redirecting users, our Internet Content Provider licence will not be renewed," Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said on the company's official blog.

"Without an ICP licence, we can't operate a commercial website like google.cn -- so Google would effectively go dark in China," he said.

A prominent US-based human rights group urged governments and technology companies to support Google.

"Governments and the industry should send a very clear message to China that it must provide a business environment for foreign companies that doesn't force them to violate human rights," said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.

"Google is standing there alone," she said. Others "must step up to the plate and address this as a collective industry Internet challenge. They can't just say it's a Google problem."

China is the world's biggest Internet market, with an online population of more than 400 million, according to official data.

The spat between Google and the Chinese government spilled over into the diplomatic arena, with Washington and Beijing waging a months-long war of words on the issues of Internet freedom and troubles faced by foreign firms in China.

Highlighting Google's woes with Beijing, the Internet giant has not been included in a list of companies that will receive a licence to provide online map and location services in China.

The State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping on Monday published a list of 23 companies that will be approved to operate web mapping services, including Google's Chinese rival search engine Baidu.

Under a regulation introduced this month, all firms providing online map and location services in China are required to apply for approval from the government agency, state media reported.

Google, Baidu and another local company DDMap account for more than half of the online mapping market in China, the report said.

earlier related report
Google Web search engine 'partially blocked' in China
Washington (AFP) June 30, 2010 - Google's Web search engine in China was "partially blocked" on Wednesday, the deadline for the Chinese authorities to renew the Internet giant's business license.

"It appears that search queries produced by Google Suggest are being blocked for mainland users in China," a Google spokesman told AFP. "Normal searches that do not use query suggestions are unaffected."

Google Suggest provides a user with suggested words as they type a query into the Google search box. Typing in the letters "ob," for example, may prompt a suggestion for "Obama."

A Web page maintained by Google on the accessibility to its services in mainland China, google.com/prc/report.html, listed its Web search service as "partially blocked" as of Wednesday.

The service had been listed as "fully or mostly accessible" for previous days this week. Other Google services such as Gmail, News and Images were "fully or mostly accessible" on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the change in accessibility to Google's Web search service in China was linked to its ongoing dispute with the Chinese authorities over censorship.

Google's Web search engine in China has been "partially blocked" on three other days this month, most recently on June 17, June 18 and June 20.

Google said Tuesday it would stop automatically redirecting Chinese users to an unfiltered search site in Hong Kong, a process it began in March in response to state censorship and cyberattacks it claims came from China.

Google said all mainland users would now be directed to a new landing page on google.cn, which links to the uncensored Hong Kong site.

Google's change in tack in the world's biggest online market was aimed at addressing government complaints about the censorship issue and came just before its Internet Content Provider license was up for renewal Wednesday.

"It's clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable -- and that if we continue redirecting users, our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed," Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said on the company's official blog.

"Without an ICP license, we can't operate a commercial website like google.cn -- so Google would effectively go dark in China," he said.

"Over the next few days we'll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page," he said.

Drummond said Google re-submitted its business license application based on what it called a "new approach."

"This new approach is consistent with our commitment not to self-censor and, we believe, with local law," Drummond said.

Marsha Wang, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Google, said the company was still waiting for a response from the central government on the license issue.

"We will keep communicating with (the government) to see what information it will give us," she told AFP.

China is the world's biggest Internet market, with an online population of more than 400 million, according to official data.

In January, Google threatened to completely shut down its operations in mainland China over what it said were China-based cyberattacks, and said it was no longer willing to abide by the so-called "Great Firewall of China".

Two months later, it started re-routing Google.cn users to its unfiltered Hong Kong site.

Beijing reacted furiously, denying any role in the cyberattacks which Google said had targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents and saying it was "totally wrong" to stop filtering its Chinese-language search engine.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News