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Google Inc. said Thursday its Internet services in China are functioning properly after a minor overnight disruption.
A company Web site still indicated that its search engine and advertising platform was being fully blocked in China, while its images and news services were only partially accessible within the country.
But a Google spokesperson said the Web site, which summarizes the accessibility to Google services from within mainland China, may have overestimated the level of service disruption.
"Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it's possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage," the spokesperson said. "That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally."
The company also said that the website which summarizes the accessibility of Google services in China is not a real-time tool.
The blockage appeared to be the first significant disruption of Google services since the company was granted a key license renewal earlier this month that enabled it to continue operating its website in China.
The renewal was granted after the company reached a compromise with Chinese regulators that diffused a standoff over censorship requirements. As part of that compromise, the company's mainland Chinese Web page offers only a limited selection of services to Internet users, such as music search, product search and its translation tool, all of which Google is not required to censor.
Chinese users wishing to access Google's most popular services, such as its search engine, as well as its images, finance, videos and maps pages must click on a link that takes them to the company's Hong Kong site.
But many observers noted that so-called "two-click" solution would make it easy for Chinese authorities to block Google traffic from Hong Kong, creating service disruptions for consumers and potentially hampering the company's ability to sell ads on those pages.
Shares in Google were off 0.8%, at $480.99 in after-hours trading. The stock is off 22% so far this year but has gained 6.8% in the last month.