Google has made the decision to change the policy for its search engine in China, under pressure from the country’s government.

You may remember that back in March, Google made the decision to stop censoring search results as the Chinese government wanted.

The search company made the decision to divert China based searches from Google.cn to Google.hk – the Hong Kong servers, where results weren’t censored.

Despite the fact that the Chinese government firewalls ensured citizens had web content filtered anyway, the powers-that-be weren’t happy with Google’s actions.

And now, with Google’s Internet Content Provider license up for renewal at the end of the month, Chinese officials have made it clear that if the search giant intends to continue its redirection policy, a new license will not be granted.

In other words, Google will effectively be forced to close its doors in China. On the Google blog page, David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, notes that this is a prospect “dreaded by many of our Chinese users, who have been vocal about their desire to keep Google.cn alive. We have therefore been looking at possible alternatives.”

And the alternative the company has plumped for is to use a “landing page” on Google.cn, with a prominent link to the Hong Kong servers underneath the search box. In other words, the redirection will no longer be automatic, but the decision of the searching user.

Drummond explains that on the landing page, users can “conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering. This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page.”

Google is evidently hoping this compromise will be enough to keep the Chinese authorities sweet, and will mean that it can continue to maintain a presence in the country. Whether that will be the case remains to be seen.

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Google switches Chinese policy to stay open

China has a way of alienating the rest of the world. Instead of using the standard protocol for wireless networks like the rest of the western world is using, it decided to develop its own. But its not stopping Apple from going into one of the world’s largest consumer market. Apple appears to have tweaked its iPhone to support a Chinese security protocol for wireless networks, as companies increasingly adopt Chinese government-backed technologies to break into the country’s huge market.

This would mean that Apple may soon launch a new version of the iPhone for China supporting its Wi-Fi protocol, a feature that regulations previously barred.

When Apple entered the Chinese market, it removed its Wi-Fi support due to regulations that WLAN support on phones should conform to the homegrown Chinese security protocol called WAPI. The new Apple phone does support WAPI, according to the Chinese regulatory site. If an iPhone with WAPI goes on sale, Apple would be one of the highest-profile companies to offer a device using the protocol. The new Apple phone may also support standard Wi-Fi. The Chinese security protocol is an alternative for just part of Wi-Fi, and devices can support both it and the technology it is meant to replace.

China has promoted the protocol, along with other homegrown technologies like the 3G standard TD-SCDMA, as part of a vision to produce more of its own technology and have it adopted by international companies.

Dell is another company that has added WAPI to devices for China. Its latest device to support the protocol, a previously unknown TD-SCDMA mobile phone called the Mini 3v, was also cleared last month to use its frequency range, according to the Chinese monitoring center.

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Apple Tweaks iPhone Wifi for Chinese Market

Set-top boxes are set to reach Asian consumers at an ever-increasing rate, according to new STB market data published by ABI Research.
Overall STB shipments in the region, including those for cable, DBS, IPTV, and DTT television services, will approach 111 million in 2014, the culmination of a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in excess [...]

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12% Growth in Asia-Pacific Set-Top Box Shipments By 2014

Espial announces
that Chongqing Cable TV Network has selected Espial MediaBase to power their on-demand
services. Chongqing Cable TV Network is located in the southwest of China and provides
analog and digital TV services to 4.2 million subscribers. With this launch, they
establish themselves as one of the most innovative cable operators in the world. Using
Espial MediaBase, they can now offer Video-On-Demand, TV On-Demand, Network PVR and
Timeshift-TV services. With this line-up of on-demand services now launched, Chongqing
Cable TV Network will begin converting their entire subscriber base to digital TV
services over the next few years.

During their VOD system selection process, Chongqing Cable TV Network was impressed
with the capabilities of Espial MediaBase. Espial MediaBase is tightly integrated
with the Business Management Solution for Cable Operators from Huawei, their preferred
system integrator. They were able to overcome backbone network bandwidth constraints
with its powerful multi-tiered, multicast content distribution networking and server
clustering features. The ability to fine-tune their VOD hardware and software configurations
to each of their service regions was an advantage over suppliers who provide a limited
set of hardware and licensing configurations. They were also able to differentiate
their user experience with a full range of on-demand services and features like instant
playback on time-shift TV services. Overall, they were also able to achieve a low
overall cost of ownership with all of these features allowing them reliably, cost-effectively
and efficiently distribute content and provide on-demand TV services to users in several
cities including Yiran, Baligongshe, Tianlong and Hongxing.

Credit:
Tier 1 Chinese Cable Operator Launches On-Demand TV Services With Espial MediaBase

Microsoft has announced that it will launch a trial TV streaming website for MSN’s UK audiences offering longer videos.
The pilot TV website streaming project will host 350 hours of programs that are from All 3 Media and BBC Worldwide for the most part, including the Young Ones, Hustle, Peep Show, and Shameless among others from [...]

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