False. There has been a lot of independent reporting on this (even if credits Intercept for getting it first, and yes I work there).
NYT confirmed based on "two people with knowledge of the plans." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/01/technology/china-google-c...
WSJ confirmed based on "a person familiar with the matter." https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-considering-censored-sea...
Reuters confirmed with "two sources said." https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-google/google-plans...
VICE confirmed with "a source inside the company." https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/9kmdm8/google-china-cens...
Are there any further development besides the initial "Intercept report" details?
My best guess is that Google China somehow partnered with a major Android ROM developer in China to provide a search component in Android system, some kind of integration with "Custom Search API".
It's nothing like the full search experience is returning to China, but technically it's based on the same google search infrastructure.
I like to analyze the structure & dynamic of a topic, not the number of "sources".
At this point we know only that there are people inside Google who are, for various reasons, leaking information to the press. We have no direct quotes from these anonymous sources nor any information about who they might be. For all we know they could be janitors.
What's so funny is that I remember the days when Greenwald used to rage daily against the media for using anonymous sources. Now this has become the primary type of "reporting" that the Intercept trucks in.
YouTube and Gmail also don't work in China, which are significant. They technically didn't leave China, however, because they never entered it.
> Fact 2: Search engines are more and more irrelevant these days. All interesting new content are either from Weibo or Wechat (or other closed garden)
I think you mean to qualify that with in China?
> Fact 4: Firewalls in China has a hierarchical layers of blocking
Most of the western-world web moved to HTTPS specifically because China was inspecting plain text packets. It was interesting to watch the change over happen from 2008-2011.
I mean even if the "android app" came out how does it gain traction?
Does anybody actually use an "app" to search on mobile phones?
You type some phrases into an app, the app displays results in a webview, you click the SERP, then what? a browser opens?
Why don't you use the browser on your phone directly for searching?
That's why I think Google is working on some ROM feature, not an app. Or maybe there are some misudnerstanding from the "source"
If it's an app it's doomed to fail.
These are not exactly web page search. It need deep integration with account(gmail), maps (with up-to-dateupdated POI), schedules, music, movie reviews, news.
It covered much more than just search. I am not sure google can pull that off the same app in China. It will be very unlikely.
Adsense in China is franchised to a Chinese company.
You can see your own location in the Maps app, but that’s based on the phone’s GPS, not a google service.
Not sure what the comparison to Japan is, but maps works fine in Tokyo. I use it extensively every time I go there.
* edit: grammar.
Interesting. Hadn't come across it before.
Uh no. I don't see how you could even think that.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-rights-un/u-n-says-...
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-child-labor-2012-1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-microsoft-and-lenovo-fai...
I can guarantee you that labeling China with these can go on forever, but how does your fact help with the quesiton we are discussing?
btw Yes I do think Google made the wrong move to cooperate with China. But also I don't think a search app is the plan here. Maybe there are some misunderstanding from the source.
What's going to happen by Monday?
That's "google search" if just by a different name
>f2
see part 1
>f3
Google returning is contradicted by p1+p2
>f4
what does that have to do with p1-3 though
FTA
> Documents seen by The Intercept, marked “Google confidential,” say that Google’s Chinese search app will automatically identify and filter websites blocked by the Great Firewall.
This part does not make much sense. It's simply impractical.
Fact 2: Search engines are more and more irrelevant these days. All interesting new content are either from Weibo or Wechat (or other closed garden)
Fact 3: all reports about "Google returning to China" are based solely on the "Intercept report"[1] as source. I suggest everyone take a look at it. I think there's a huge misunderstanding. Maybe it's in-app search for some domain business only instead of web-wide search?
Fact 4: Firewalls in China has a hierarchical layers of blocking. Some times the plain text http is effected, sometimes it's the DNS, sometimes it's the tis certs, most of the time it's heuristics (e.g. SVM model to classify traffic) and random. There are also collateral blocking, like a blocking a CDN. You can't guess exactly which one piece of information was the culprit. And it all varies in places and time. All "blocking" are based on empirical assumptions, no one have ever done a large scale, down to the packet level study of it. Administrative notices of taking down articles are blurry as hell. Sometimes there's even corporates faking govn't orders to remove some review as PR move. So it's very hard to suggest if an "article" should be blocked or not. The chinese govn't utilize this method to force everyone to "self-censorship" and some business are making a profit of it.
[1]: https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search-engi...