While speculation has been run rampant online that the Chinese government was beginning to blockGoogle , it seems the company caused its own blockage .
Reports surfaced that user in China were sometimes ineffective to access Google ’s site , ineffectual to complete hunt and also had intermittent problem access Google ’s Chinese - language situation . That ’s when venture erupt that China was blocking Google in retaliation for Google’sdeciding to runan uncensored Web website from Hong Kong .
Seems that ’s not the lawsuit , after all .
“ Lots of substance abuser in China have been unable to seek on Google.com.hk today , ” said a Google spokesperson in an e - mail toComputerworld . “ This blockage seems to have been touch off by a modification on Google ’s part . In the last 24 hours , ‘ gs_rfai ’ originate appearing in the universal resource locator of Google searches globally as part of a search parameter — a string of character that post information about the inquiry to Google so we can return the dependable result . Because this parametric quantity contained the letter ‘ rfa , ’ the dandy firewall was associating these searches with Radio Free Asia , a servicing that has been untouchable in China for a farsighted time , hence the blockage . ”
The representative said Google engineers are working on the job .
This was a bit of an mortifying misunderstanding for a company in the thick of ongoing trouble with China , said Dan Olds , an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group .
“ If it turns out that Google has unwittingly block themselves in China with this gs_rfai bug , it puts a least a little bollock on their face , ” he added . “ But , this is n’t really a big deal or anything that will have any impingement on their relationship with China or their business in the area . So they ’ll pass over their collective faces and go back to serving up search results from their Hong Kong outpost . ”
old add , however , that this upshot intend the world is still waiting to see what China ’s response will be to Google ’s decisionto stop censor search resultslast week .
