Google sets off false alarm on China searches

Google is reporting that outages in China were not as severe as reported

Google has backtracked on reports of a block on its services in China, admitting that outages reported on Thursday evening on Google's web search, news search, ads and mobile services were not as widespread as had been believed.

"Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it's possible that our machines can overestimate the level of blockage," the company said.

"That appears to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears that users in China are now accessing our properties normally."

Service availability on Friday was reported as consistent with that of previous days, and all services first reported as blocked are functioning normally.

The blocking alert was installed by Google in the wake of its decision to move its search operations from mainland China to Hong Kong.

The company has had a contentious relationship with China's government since evidence surfaced of security breaches on systems in Google's China headquarters.

Despite the tension, many Google services have remained available in mainland China, and the company recently had its licence to operate in the country renewed.