Forum Moderators: goodroi
Is this affecting anyone else? Or is it only China? (or only me?)
In the meantime, here are three sites that you can access from China. They are identical to Google, except that the first is a mirror image that just looks incredibly cool. Based on the premise, no doubt, that the word Google eventually leads to a block.
[alltooflat.com...]
[google.cm.nu...]
[google.icq.com...]
Cheers!
Michael
Media freedom groups have criticised China for blocking access to the popular search engine Google
English and Chinese Google both came back when I logged on to the Internet just now. Let's hope it's permanent.
I was wondering how long they could hold out. It will be interesting to read the subsequent reports.
Onya
Woz
I think I can understand why the Chinese might be upset, though.
Check the first result for 'jiang ze min' -- a _Taiwanese_ site entitled 'Don't Kowtow to Jiang Ze-min'.
Then check the first result for 'bill clinton' -- a biography of 'William J. Clinton' from the official White House site that reads: 'During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the US enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history.'
For an impartial search engine, the result seems more than a little biased.
So do you get significantly different results searching Google databases from China?
But to answer somebody else's question, Yes the results are the same here as in the US.
This block could've shot my lesson plans all to a bad place, seeing as how I have neither curriculum nor textbook most of the time. No website is so relevant or well-organized. A damn shame. I'm holding out until November and crossing my fingers.
Michael
No, Google has definitely been cut off again. The 'return of Google' was just a blip.
Concerning the glaring discrepancy between results for 'jiang ze min' and 'bill clinton', I think the Chinese government should consider subscribing to Webmasterworld so they can optimise their sites for Google!
Full-Text [newscientist.com]
See Also: WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com] post from January
any suggestion?
what other search engine has "image search" function?
THX a lot
Welcome to WebmasterWorld,
We have a discussion over here [webmasterworld.com] about the current situation. You might find some ideas there.
Onya
Woz
Searching on "Jiang Zemin", you have to go down to #7 before you find an "anti" site, whereas the #3 result for "Bill Clinton" and the #4 for "George Bush" are "anti" sites.
I don't see even the remotest sign of bias here.
Source ( sorry, in Russian :) ) - internet.ru
Interesting, how many visitors have the world lost from Chine through Google?
Translation
------------------
...both companies Google and AltaVista are intended to attain the cancellation of blocking their systems.But meanwhile for numerous Chinese it is necessary to be satisfied Yayuoo , to the gladness of the latter.
Source: [internet.ru ]
[edited by: chris_f at 8:48 pm (utc) on Sep. 8, 2002]
But..
Perhaps Google will now know how it feels to be penalised without being told why.
1> They link to sites China does not like?
2> They banned china.gov?
3> Some countries take SEO too far?
Heini, I don't expect an official announcement from the Chinese government. The closest you can expect is criticism of Google planted in the press or on the net to find out what the authorities think.
Way back at the start, kch333 referred us to a baidu forum that was discussing Google. There was a link there to an article in Chinese that painted Google as an arrogant American site that harmed China's national interests, and why should Google think itself above control? It very nicely appealed to anti-American sentiments.
Onya
Woz
Actually, not a problem for me, because I'm suitably tech savvy to find ways around the firewall. In fact the blocking of Google could actually be a blessing in disguise, because it's the one site that the masses really care about being blocked, and this will undoubtedly force many of them to find ways to circumvent the blocking more routinely. Even in a communist country the opinion of the masses counts for something (how else did they pull-off their communist revolution in the first place).
This whole thing could start off a popular uprising against the authorities, at least in respect of ordinary people utilizing technologies like triangle-boy just so they can get access to Chinese Google. And as a side-effect they’ll also be able to get news.bbc, Geocities, and anything else that they don’t really care much about at present.
It's probably a losing strategy to block the more or less free flow of information, which the internet represents.
Nevertheless, we are a worldwide community of web professionals, who share an interest in the web and how to work with it.
So lets leave discussions on that ground, not delving into international politics.
