It's been quite a while since I've written about Google's relationship with the restrictive and internet-oppressive Chinese authorities, but it seems that their new Google Accelerator product - which Jack mentioned at the weekend - may have a hidden benefit.
According to Poynter Online, it might circumvent the restrictions on which websites can be visited. Wrote China Herald's Fons Tuinstra:
But a reader of my weblog suggested that in combination with IE, Google's new tool would beat the Internet censor here in China. Well, that was enough encouragement for me to give it a try.
Indeed, the Google Web Accelerator helps to beat our Internet nanny; at least, I got to the BBC news services easily. I do not think that Google wanted to bring down the Chinese firewall (as far as it still is in place with so many proxies around), but they effectively did.
I can't imagine that this was an intended consequence of the software... so is this a case of "Don't Be Evil... By Accident"?
