I was preparing a presentation and did a Google image search on ‘China Internet’. I did this a few days ago as well, but then Google seemed to be very slow and did not show the pictures. When I tried it this morning I got the first few pictures, but the others did not display. Strange, because just before that I had done several image searches on other keywords without a problem. I tried other keywords, but from that moment on only got the message ‘the document contains no data’.
What does this mean? It seems that the search term ‘China internet’ is blocked in Google, at least for images. Once you hit a forbidden combination of keywords, as a punishment other image searches also do not work anymore. Luckily there is still Yahoo image search, which seems to have no problem with these keywords. I am starting to use Yahoo more and more lately for search (they are getting quite good!), and now I will also start using them for image search.
Here in Dubai googling for ‘China Internet’ returns some interesting results including fr33dom of expr3ssion, human r1ghts, bypassing internet cens0rship etc. I guess that has something to do with it!
Interesting blog btw, facinating to read about your experiences and business in China. Good luck!
John
In Holland:
Results 1 – 20 of about 30,000 for China internet. (0.29 seconds)
Marc, wha you are describing also happens in Hong Kong. I think it is the problem of slow connection, but not blocking. If it is blocked, you will not see anything
Amy, interesting that this also happens in Hong Kong. Byt why only with this search term? With other key words I normally get image results right away. And why are other terms blocked for a couple of minutes after doing this search? That is the same as doing a Google search on other forbidden words. Right after that you cannot use Google for several minutes as a punishment.