The WSJ today carries an item on Google’s moves into China revealing that the company has decided to make further concessions to the government, including - the WSJ alleges - the blocking of some aspects of Google Earth in parts of China. From the Opposite End of China:

The article’s basic point is that after a lot of initial hemming and hawing, Google execs have dismissed any worries about the censorship efforts required to co-exist peacefully with the CCP. In fact, along with Yahoo! and other search engines, Google is already tailoring Chinese search results to comply with government restrictions.

For instance:

Until recently, Google’s map and satellite-photo service offered Chinese Internet users something they rarely could see: a bird’s-eye view of the secret compound of Zhongnanhai, where the country’s top leaders live and work. But in recent weeks, close-up views from Google’s satellite images of the leadership compound in Beijing have been blocked in at least parts of China.

Google also restricts access to Google Video in China, which means Chinese readers of this blog will not be able to see ‘Hard Gay - part time ramen‘ without a proxy.:

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, google, northeast asia