China happy with Google's latest tweaks, saga appears at an end

The China versus Google spat seems to be drawing to a conciliatory end today, as a senior state official has announced China is "satisfied" with Google's latest round of changes. This was somewhat predictable given that the country just recently renewed El Goog's license to host sites within its borders, but it's always reassuring to get confirmation from an official source. The American search giant had tried to strike a precarious balance, by having its local .cn domain adhere to Chinese laws and dictum while also providing a link out to its uncensored Hong Kong hub, and that seems to have done the trick. Ultimately, even the .hk search results will be subject to China's firewall -- which will render the most sensitive info inaccessible -- but at least Google can walk away from this dispute claiming that it's providing uncensored search in some form, even if its output can't always be put to good use.