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On Tuesday, China's main government news agency, Xinhua News Agency, launched Panguso, an Internet search site that will deliver a state-certified version of the Internet, according to the Washington Post.
The government-approved search engine will operate in tandem with state-owned phone carrier, China Mobile Ltd.—coincidentally, the world's largest phone carrier.
The move into state-sanctioned search comes after Google closed its China-based search engine last July. To avoid losing its content provider license, Google agreed to employ a hybrid landing page that directs search through Hong Kong but everything else via Google.cn. The move took its toll: Google's market share fell to 19.6 percent, from nearly 31 percent before the closure of the Chinese search engine, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm, the AP reported. In August, Xinhua and China Mobile announced their intention to collaborate on search.
According to the report, the venture gives China's ruling party a new tool to try to control what the public sees online. Beijing promotes Web use for business and education but tries to block material deemed subversive or obscene.
