Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) has backed away from its
claim yesterday that its search engine was blocked from users in mainland
China, saying a system it set up to automatically track availability of its
services in China had misrepresented the situation, the Associated Press
reported.
"It’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of
blockage," Google told AP.
"That seems to be what happened [Thursday]
when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China
are accessing our properties normally."
Google set up the system to
monitor availability of its services in China several months ago, after it
decided to stop censoring search results at the behest of the Chinese
government.
The company appeared to have smoothed relations with China
recently, when the government there approved a renewal of Google’s license to
publish Internet content in the country.
Related Links:
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(AP)
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(DMW previous coverage)
