In what may considered as a setback to Google’s attempt at further penetrating its search reach in China, Sina.com has decided to replace its Google-run search engine with its own search technology.
Sina.com is a leading portal and news site said that its contract with Google had come to an end and it instead preferred to develop and implement its own search engine.
The move comes a week after Google said China blocked its Gmail service, a claim China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman described as “unacceptable.”
China frequently bans sites which it feels are not in the interest of its citizens and which also include pornography, gambling and content critical of the ruling Communist Party. It also blocks Google’s YouTube site as well as social networking websites run by Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Sina.com is the most popular Chinese language portal on the internet, with about 280 million registered users and almost a billion page views per day, reports Brothersoft.
