google_logo1Google’s global website was unfortunately blocked in China last night, signalling an increase in the crackdown of the Chinese government against the world’s leading search engine company.

Various attempts were made to access google.com and Gmail but all went in vain. This unfortunate incident took place at 9 pm local time. However the sites were able to be accessed via proxy servers which gave an indication that the site was blocked by internet sensors.

The blockage came after Google seemingly rejected the China’s order of blocking access to foreign sites through Google.cn, the Chinese based Google site. Google said in a statement:

We have received reports that most users cannot access Google.com in China … We are investigating the matter and hope that the service will be restored soon

People’s Daily and Xinhua the official news agency accused and blamed Google for showing links to pornographic and adult content in the search results. On similar lines, State media highlighted and reported the fact that users were able to search and navigate to foreign sites using google.cn, even after the government threatened during the last week to suspend foreign websites as they failed to stop pornographic links from showing in search results.

As a reaction to government’s threat and criticism, Google removed the buttons on Google.cn that allowed users to choose whether they want to search for local or foreign websites. Still users were able to search for foreign websites on the local Google website.

Another interesting fact to consider is that Google.com handles only about 5% of searches in China. However this blockage is still significant for Google since the search giants have put a lot of effort into entering the Chinese market. On a similar note, advertisers use the Global website of Google to market and advertise their products to the Chinese people. So it also holds a significance in terms of business. Let us hope that both the parties come to a common agreement.