Goojje : Google Knockoff Surfaces In China

Imitation Web sites of both Google and YouTube have emerged in China as the country faces off against the real Google over its local operations.

YouTubecn.com offers videos from the real YouTube, which is blocked in China. The Google imitation is called Goojje and includes a plea for the U.S.-based Web giant not to leave China, after it threatened this month to do so in a dispute over Web censorship and cyberattacks.

The separate projects went up within a day of each other in mid-January, just after Google's threat to leave.

"This should be an issue with Google's intellectual property, also with China censorship," said Xiao Qiang, director of the Berkeley China Internet Project at the University of California-Berkeley. "I cannot see how these sites can survive very long without facing these two issues."

Both sites were still working Thursday. It wasn't clear what Chinese authorities would do with them, if anything.

China's National Copyright Administration has been cracking down on illegally run Web sites and this month issued a code of ethics, but no statement was posted on its Web site Thursday about the Google and YouTube imitations.

Google had little comment. "The only comment I can give you right now is just to confirm that we're not affiliated," spokeswoman Jessica Powell said in an e-mail.

China is famous for its fake products, but this is the first time such prominent sites have been copied in this way, Xiao said.

The creators of the two sites could not be reached Thursday.

"I did this as a public service," the founder of the YouTube knockoff, Li Senhe, told The Christian Science Monitor in an instant message conversation. Videos on social unrest in China can be found on the site, which is in English.

The real YouTube was blocked in China in 2008 after videos related to Tibetan unrest were posted there.

Some Chinese quickly welcomed the knockoff YouTube site. "I don't know if it will last long," wrote blogger Jia Zhengjing, who has written posts against censorship.

The other site, Goojje, is a working search engine that looks like a combination of Google and its top China competitor, Baidu.

"Exactly speaking, Goojje is not a search engine but a platform for finding friends," one of the founders, Xiao Xuan, told the Henan Business Daily on Wednesday.

Xiao said the site didn't have the level of sensitive material of the copycat YouTube site and that it probably was based on the Google China site instead of the version used in the United States.

"It's quite clean by Chinese censorship standards," he said.

He guessed that based on the amount of time and work needed to build such a site on top of Google's data, Goojje had already been ready before the Google-China showdown started – and that the founder or founders chose the name "Goojje" to get attention.

The names are a play on words. The second syllable of "Google" sounds like "older brother," and the second syllable of "Goojje" sounds like "older sister" in Mandarin.

Copycat companies are nothing new in China. "Baidu included," Xiao said of China's most popular search engine. "The whole idea is following Google."

Xiao said if another copycat site like these emerges, it probably would be of Facebook – which is also blocked in China.

___

http://www.goojje.com/

http://youtubecn.com/

Email On Deck: A disposable email address that works

Today, Team Inforpioneer brings an interesting Email service for our reader which will definitely help our readers to improve their internet security and will benefit in some other ways. Here is a short description of this service. EmailOnDeck.com is the premier site for all things relating to temporary, disposable and throwaway email addresses. We want to help you avoid SPAM, protect your online privacy, and stop you from having to give away your personal email address to every company and person on the internet who insists on you giving it to them. We work hard and will continue to work hard to give you a disposable email address that works with any site or app. We hope to help give you back the control of deciding who you want to give your personal info to. Temporary emails are perfect for any transaction where you want to improve your online privacy. Use them when you buy or sell Bitcoins or trade cryptocurrency, at exchanges, or locally. They can be used for QA testing of e

Top 101 Ways to Promote a New Blog

Promoting a new blog can be quite daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. As you might expect, breaking down blog promotion into small, actionable tasks eliminates the mental road block you’ve probably experienced when trying to wrap you head around how to get people’s attention. You don’t have to do everything in this list, and some items will have a greater effect then others, but every tactic will at least drive some traffic, and any traffic is better than no traffic. Content 1. Write a list of over 100+ resources or ideas. 2. Write the definitive guide to something. Spend time making this awesome. 3. Release a manifesto . 4. Release 2 manifestos . 5. Interview cool people. People like talking about cool people. 6. After your articles are indexed in search engines, break them up into smaller articles and submit them to ezinearticles.com (and other article directories). 7. Or just pay someone to submit the articles for you . 8. Write a list of all the cool blogs and people in your nich

Cell Phone Buying Guide 2010

I outline some of the most important factors to look into when purchasing a new cell phone. When your old cell phone squeaks like a rusty door hinge, has more lint under the screen than your jean pockets, and lasts half an afternoon with a full charge, it’s time for a new one. But with most cell phone contracts lasting two years, a new phone shouldn’t be the type of purchase you make lightly. Check out our quick and dirty guide to your next phone purchase to make sure you cover all the bases on your shopping trip. Choosing a carrier Because most U.S. cell phone carriers heavily subsidize phone purchases in exchange for two-year contracts, and lock the phones to their networks, your choice of cell carrier will have more impact on which type of phone you end up with than any other factor. If you already have carrier and feel satisfied with it, the choice is easy. If not, you’ll need to choose one. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon dominate the cell phone market in the States. Speak

Info Pioneer

Search This Blog