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The Chinese government has renewed Google's website licence, said the search giant last Friday.
Google has been automatically shunting users in China to its uncensored Hong Kong site since March after it said that its databases and some e-mail accounts received attacks coming from China. But last month, Google softened its stance, allowing users in China to choose the censored search engine.
SIGNIFICANCE
Google blinked. It won kudos earlier when it took the moral high ground by offering Chinese users searches free from any government biases. But China has more Internet users than the United States - a market simply too huge for Google to ignore.
Google will continue its balancing act. It has one year before its licence needs to be renewed.
Google has been automatically shunting users in China to its uncensored Hong Kong site since March after it said that its databases and some e-mail accounts received attacks coming from China. But last month, Google softened its stance, allowing users in China to choose the censored search engine.
SIGNIFICANCE
Google blinked. It won kudos earlier when it took the moral high ground by offering Chinese users searches free from any government biases. But China has more Internet users than the United States - a market simply too huge for Google to ignore.
Google will continue its balancing act. It has one year before its licence needs to be renewed.
