Google appears to be giving up on the search engine business in China, but Google is a diversified company now with a lot more than just search. What becomes of its other offerings in China, such as applications, and for that matter, what are the companies that depend on things like Google Apps thinking right about now? Google clearly has its hands full, and Datamation has the story.
Are enterprise users of Google’s cloud-based applications in China in for a stormy ride?
Google apparently felt compelled to address the issue in a blog post on Tuesday — not surprising given the widely publicized state of its rocky relationship with the Chinese government and its recent decision to stop abiding by the government’s censorship requirements for search results. As a result of that move, Google is now redirecting users of its Google.cn search engine to a new site, Google.com.hk in Hong Kong, where the government doesn’t censor results.
But Chinese state media quickly blasted the move and it’s widely expected that China will shut down access to the search engine. And if Google’s search engine is blocked, could similar action be taken to restrict access to Google Apps?
Google said it hopes not.
