Google takes blame for China search failure

[FT News]

Google took responsibility for a sharp increase in the failure of searches in China using its servers, saying that it had configured them by accident to resemble a site banned by the Chinese government

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Chinese internet users suffered more serious problems with Google searches on Wednesday amid confusion over who was to blame for a series of disruptions that have occured since the company last week moved its search engine to Hong Kong.

The problems – where searches in Chinese for words as harmless as “dog” or “home” produce browser error messages – re-emerged just hours after users reported that major disruptions that continued from Tuesday evening appeared to have disappeared.

Google on Tuesday evening took responsibility for the problems. The company said the blockages occured when it inserted new computer code into its system. It suggested that the change – which included the letters “rfa” – caused Chinese filters to confuse its search pages with Radio Free Asia, a site which is blocked by China.

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FT.com / Technology - Google blames China for blocked searches