China Is the Winner: Bing Go
January 24, 2019
I read “China Appears to Block Microsoft’s Bing as Censorship Intensifies.” The write up explains that Bing has gone. Perhaps the Avis search system will return, but I think that some work may be required.
What’s interesting is that I understood Microsoft to be filtering certain results from the index used by those users firing queries from the Middle Kingdom.
The write up explains:
If the block proves to be permanent, it would suggest that Western companies can do little to persuade China to give them access to what has become the world’s largest Internet market by users, especially at a time of increased trade and economic tensions with the United States.
There may be some interesting implications; for example:
- Chinese nationals who are working for Microsoft may find themselves subject scrutiny. That could bring bad tidings to the individuals and possibly their families.
- The Redmond giant has big plans for its cloud services. In China, the weather forecast could turn grim. I suppose one can think of the possible prohibitions against Microsoft technology as a form of raining on a parade.
- Google’s floundering in China and the more recent dust up about as special China style search system may suggest that the online ad giant is not on the same wave length as the government of China.
To sum up, this is significant if less interesting than having one’s mobile phone alert a user when a person of “low social credit score” is near.
Stephen E Arnold, January 24, 2019
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
