Google’s back in China (well sort of)

Good news if you are living in mainland China, from last Wednesday US internet giants Google have made a new version of their translation app available to Chinese users without use of virtual private networks (VPN’s). Now this might not seem like massive news to us in the western world because of how easily accessible Google’s translation app is to us so essentially if we ever needed some basic translation services it was always one click away.

But you see in China it has been a different story because back in 2010 Google had to remove their search engine (www.google.cn) and direct all searches to their Hong Kong website (www.google.hk) because of disagreements about censorship as a result from the Chinese-based hacking and cyberattacks on Google. Although Google translate has been available on the Google webite for Chinese users for years, this is the first since the ban on Google that the Chinese have been able to access Google’s ‘fast translation services’ without having to use VPN software’s to bypass China’s censorship firewalls.

Google had this to say on their blog post. “Today we’re releasing version 5.8 of the Google Translate apps for Android and iOS, adding instant visual translation between English and Korean, as well as an improved experience for users in China.” This indicates that Google might be willing to make some big improvements on their relationship with China, which makes sense since China has now the biggest population of mobile users in the world at an estimated 700 million.

But when asked to explain why they have all of a sudden made this app accessible to Chinese users, a Google spokesperson declined to comment on the situation. Although most of Google’s services have been blocked in China, most notably their search engine, Google have been able to keep themselves in the Chinese zeitgeist by aiding Chinese companies operate in foreign territories with services such as localisation services and Mandarin translation services.

But all in all the release of Google’ translation app is definitely a step in the right direction for Google-China relations and with something such as an app offering a less controversial first step as it contains less sensitive information than other Google products due to the lack of data collected.

What are your thoughts on this move by Google?