Thanks for that information Pericles. It helps to know precisely what we're dealing with.

It seems to me that Google has come up with an intersting compromise. Their technical credibility is not compromised as they return "hits". The user is not as likely then to try another search site. And finally... the user is effectively told that the results have been censored, a negative for the government I would think.

(I imagine that technically, Google might not need to operate the site in China. However they probably do need a business presence there in order to get advertising clients, and use local staff with their associated street knowlege, culture and language abilities).

If this is the extent of it... perhaps Google has negotiated very well, and has come out with a win? I don't think I can fault their decision based on this data. On paper it sounds fine.

Mmmm... if I was with the Chinese government techs though, all I'd need to do was look for "Google not found because ..." messages being returned to users network/computer addresses. Rather than the more complicated (perhaps):

"Page containing - democracy OR freedom OR tibet OR (tibet and dalai) OR (tiannamin and massacre) OR etc etc etc"

I hope this is not the case. Sorry to bring that into it, but as a technician it did occur to me.

WW, the restrictions the government can put in place will apply with or without this type of initiative.

In fact, it was "probably" their intervention before that caused the US site to experience frequent long wait times, and occasional total unavailability.

Google's position is that they have made the best decision consistent with their own charter, and feel that a presence there is in the long term better than an absence.

I (and I have absolutely no axe to grind here, for or against Google the company) tend to agree with them.