China Declares War On Internet Search Engines?

Not satisfied with blocking unacceptable web sites, or coercing Google and Yahoo search engines to hide "unacceptable" search results, China has now redirected all searches to their own search engine.

All Google, Yahoo, Live.com, and YouTube searches are now being redirected to the Chineese search engine Baidu. Rumor has it that China took this new action because of the Dali Lama getting the Congressional Gold Medal

Cyberwar: China Declares War On Western Search Sites

Further to our earlier story on visitors to Google Blogsearch being redirected to Baidu in China, new reports have surfaced that would indicate that China has unilaterally blocked all three major search engines in China and is redirecting all requests to Baidu.

Digital Marketing Blog posts that all requests to Yahoo.com and sub-sites are being redirected to Baidu. Google Blogscoped forums indicate that Live.com is also being re-directed to Baidu, as well as confirming the Yahoo story and our earlier Google post. The re-direct would also appear to apply to YouTube.com.

[edit on 10/18/07 by makeitso]

China can do whatever it wants. As long as them rich folks stop exporting all the jobs to Red China.

[edit on 18-10-2007 by Eclipse_Solar]

Google wont be too happy, they have spent a bundle on blocking content for the Chinese government already, and now they have no way of recovering from it.. (advertisement)

This news seems to have made it to the regular news services now.

On the one hand its kinda funny. In a way, search engines are getting their come-uppins for helping filter/block content for China. Working for tyrants doesn't pay in the long run, eh?

On the other hand, whats gonna happen when Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft get fed up?

Will they use their combined power to hit back?
Will they decide to quit blocking/filtering for China and find a way around the redirect?
Will they redirect worldwide searches away from Chineese websites?
Will they bow down and beg China's forgiveness & promise better filtering?

What?

Links

[edit on 10/19/07 by makeitso]