China Ends Google Block

from the no-explanation-necessary dept

Last night I was instant messaging with a friend of mine who lives in Beijing now, and she was positiviely furious about not being able to access Google (especially its Chinese search site) and AltaVista (specifically Babelfish). I mentioned that the rumor was that Google was trying to convince the Chinese government to change their mind, and her response was: "they'll probably have to pay a bribe". It seems they've done whatever they've needed to do, because Google is back online in China. AltaVista, however, stubbornly seems to have not paid up, and remains blocked (though, they're no longer sending that traffic to other search engines). Of course, since there has never been any official announcement from the Chinese government about all this, and knowing their fickle history for blocking, unblocking, and blocking again, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Google gets blocked again down the road.

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