Capital letters meant liberation from Google's censorship software for a few hours. Now it's onto some other way around Google's wall in China.With the postscript "Enjoy the liberation while you can, citizens," the Web site Crypticide recently unleashed a way to beat Google's censoring of its new Chinese search engine results.
The trick of entering search terms in capital letters worked for about six hours. Crypticide's readers noted how quickly Google acted, and that now it was onto finding some other means around Google's great wall around China.
The recent events from Jan. 29 to Jan. 30 dramatize how Google's escapades in China have catalyzed a large number of hackers, both of good and bad intentions, and that the contest of wills between the two interests is now only just beginning.
Google is censoring results of www.google.cn, which launched a few days ago.
The catalyst for all the hacks is Google's announcement that the results available through the site are censored at the government's behest. It's a noble tradeoff, Google argues.
Read more here about why a business would risk aggravation to do business in China.
The company didn't immediately reply to a request seeking comment for this story.
From a hacker's perspective, the target on Google's back has never been larger. Here is a leading Internet company with a rock star quality admitting to censorship.
But the same motivation spurring hackers is also pushing into action civil rights groups and even ordinary Web users, people like 29-year-old Philadelphia resident Lee Revell.
"It seems like an incredibly noble use of bandwidth," the IT specialist said of the efforts, echoing comments he left on Dave Farber's IP List.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: A Capital Idea in Google China
