BoingBoing reader Tom McGrenery says,

Over at the Peking duck forum, someone has pointed out that, despite assurances that the unfiltered Google.com would be available in China despite the existence of the censored Google.cn, searches from within China might be being messed with anyway. Rumours are already around that Google.cn may "very likely" be the only Google available soon (Link to the Beijing News report in Chinese, Link to English translation).

I've had somewhat dubious results from time to time, with Xinhua figuring highly in Google.com results, but it's very hard to tell from mere anecdotal evidence. Add to that the fact that the China Net Nanny's restrictions seem to vary depending on time and place, and things are just very confusing. Proxy sites seem to always manage to stay a step ahead, so that keeps the censors at bay for now, but how many net users in China know about them? Ironically, the Chinese Wikipedia includes instructions on how to get around blocks, but if you can read it then you've already done so.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:14:54 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments