Searching for progress with Google gone
- Source: Global Times
- [02:57 March 22 2010]
- Comments
Google's game in China is going to be over soon. It is said that the world's top search engine may announce its pullout plans as early as today and go through with its withdrawal on April 10.
To the majority of Chinese people, the announcement will come as no surprise. Analysis indicates that Google's exit will have little impact on their daily online activities.
And, in a recent survey conducted by huanqiu.com, up to 80 percent of respondents said that Google's exit did not really matter to them.
A simple reason lies behind most Chinese netizens' indifference toward Google's withdrawal.
After two months' thorough public discussion over the dispute, nothing is more evident than its consequence: While the company's exit may be permanent due to its damaged reputation among Chinese users, China's Internet progress will not cease in Google's absence.
The uniqueness of Chinese characters has made much room for homegrown Internet technologies to flourish.
Some domestic companies such as Baidu and Sogou have ridden the tide of the time, and taken the lead in developing input and search technologies more suited to the habits of Chinese Web users. Though Google's global dominance in search technology remains unshakeable, its technologies in these other areas hardly rival its major Chinese competitors.
