Google Provokes China With Tool to Skirt Censorship

Google and China have long had a rocky relationship over the software company's overly thorough search engine and refusal to filter search results, and for many years searching for a forbidden or even a sensitive word could cause a China user's Google connection to be cut off for up to a minute and a half. Now Google is offering a new tool that could re-ignite the feud with Beijing—when users try searching under a problematic term, they will get a yellow drop-down menu that warns them that term could cause a service "interruption," reports the LA Times. They then have the choice to alter the term.

The words "censor" and "censorship" are not mentioned, but the implication, that the Chinese government is hiding something, is clear. "We’ve said before that we want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services," Google says in a statement. "Our hope is that these written notifications will help improve the search experience in mainland China." (More Google stories.)