Google in China, before and after its spat with Beijing

Recently China renewed Google’s operating license, and now China is satisfied that U.S. Internet giant Google Inc is complying with Chinese laws after Google tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered Hong Kong search page. Unlike during the bitterness, when Google was redirecting users directly to its uncensored search page in Hong Kong; visitors are now invited to click through to the Hong Kong page instead of being sent straight there. Although, China's firewall remains in place, meaning most sensitive sites turned up on searches are inaccessible from within the country's borders; some peace seems to have established between the world’s biggest search engine and world’s biggest market.

According to the data from research firm iResearch, Google’s search share in China continued to decrease in the second quarter as well, falling to 27.3 percent from 29.5 percent in the first.

Before its high-profile spat with Beijing, Google was slowly gaining ground on China's top search engine Baidu. At the end of last year, Google's market share was 32.8 percent.

The peace is not permanent as such; it will last till Google abides by Chinese law. --------

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