Google China is Closing!

google china is closing, which means no more google.cn ! crazy! yes but true.

google is doing it officially for protecting users information, but they give in depth explanations here :

googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

(i just put the address and not the link because i don't want this blog to be blocked, but you can copy the address and go read if you want to learn more, this website is blocked in china though).

Yes, i know, they said they will close ONLY if they cannot provide uncensored results, but the chinese government is not going to allow that, for sure. (anyone who lived in china knows that :)

"we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

So, that means google china WILL close.

1) This will increase baidu market shares, for sure.

2) Some people who used to use google.cn will use... google.com, yes, that's the point, other google's around the globe are NOT blocked in china.

google has a market share of 20% here in china, that makes them second after baidu. The move is certainly going to make them lose money... but, this will improve their image outside china (USA and Europe), because it's a kind of going back to their "don't do evil" motto.

Will I still be able to search in Chinese?

yes, of course, you can use chinese on any google around the globe, and any language actually. you can search in chinese in google.com

or you can search in french on google new zeland, that won't change.

It's just that the search results are not the same, if you type nihao (in chinese characters) in google.com and google.cn, the google.cn results are adapted to a chinese audience. if you type "rent appartment" in google.co.uk, you want a UK website, if you type it in google.us, you want a USA website.

The real question now is: Why are they closing down google china? Is it only the reason they gave? Hard to tell...

what will THEM do?(THEM is our SEO company by the way :), as always, we will adapt...

to read more about Google closing in China it :

- Google May Close China Site After 'Highly Sophisticated' Attack

- Google China post in the Guardian

- the article on wired about the chinese google