Google Inc triggered a false alarm on Thursday by posting a notice that its search engine and several other services had been cut off from China — a key market where the company has been locked in a high-profile battle over online censorship.
However, after the company’s report of a complete blockage in China had been relayed by the media, Google backed off the claim, saying that its system for tracking Internet access appeared to have misinterpreted what was happening to its search, mobile and advertising services in China.
“It’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage,” Google said in a statement. “That seems to be what happened [on Thursday] when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.”
When initial inquiries were made about the problem in China, a Google spokesman said he had no other details beyond what the company was listing on its Web site.
Google began posting daily status updates on the availability of its services in China four months ago. Thursday marked the first time it has described its search engine as being completely blocked. Other Google services, such as the company’s blogging tools and YouTube video site, have been blocked for months.
Google is running the risk of being cut-off from the world’s most populous country because it is no longer willing to censor search results that China’s government considers subversive or pornographic.
Google cooperated with the restrictions for four years, but said it had a change of heart after uncovering a computer hacking attack that it traced to China.
Even as it made a stand, Google sought to keep a toehold in one of the Internet’s most promising markets by automatically shifting search requests from China to its service in Hong Kong, which is not subject to the same rules.
However, that detour riled Beijing, prompting another change that required visitors to Google.cn to click on the page to go to the Hong Kong search engine. That compromise paid-off three weeks ago when regulators renewed Google’s Internet license for another year.
Google’s report of a new barrier raised questions about whether Beijing had become fed up with the company again.
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