In most such cases, only official Chinese government sites or those with a ''.cn" suffix were included.
Google, which has as its motto ''Don't Be Evil," says the new site aims to make its search engine more accessible in China, thereby expanding access to information.
Yet the move has already been criticized by Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog that also has chided Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com for submitting to China's censorship regime.
''When a search engine collaborates with the government like this, it makes it much easier for the Chinese government to control what is being said on the Internet," said Julien Pain, head of the group's Internet desk.
However, technology analyst Duncan Clark said such criticisms probably wouldn't generate problems for Google's business elsewhere, given weak responses to previous cooperation between foreign Internet companies and Chinese authorities. Past incidents ''haven't seemed to gel into anything that could dissuade Google," said Clark, the managing director of BDA China Ltd., a consultancy based in Beijing.
Chinese Internet users said the move by Google Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., was inevitable given Beijing's restrictions on the Internet, which the government promotes for commerce but heavily censors for content deemed offensive or subversive.
''Google has no choice but to give up to the Party," said one posting on the popular information technology website PCONLINE, signed simply ''AS."
Google's move was prompted by frequent disruptions of the Chinese-language version of its search engine registered under the company's dot-com address in the United States.
Government filtering has blocked access or created lengthy delays in response time.
Google's senior policy counsel, Andrew McLaughlin, defended the new site as better serving Chinese customers.
''In deciding how best to approach the Chinese -- or any -- market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interests of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions," McLaughlin said in an e-mailed statement.
