Google complied to a Chinese government order that coerces them to disable certain search functions on google.cn, Google’s search domain for China. China has accused Google of being a major cause of the infiltration of pornography in the country.

China had ordered Google to disable certain features, most notable, keyword suggestion, where preliminary search keywords appear underneath your search terms as you type it in. These suggestions illustrate for the user the keyword combinations that provide the most results, as recorded by Google. Additionally, China had also ordered for the removal of foreign web site searching. Removal of the feature would restrict all searches made in China to show only web pages from China.

Non-compliance would result in “punishment for Google”, but exactly what this meant is unclear.

Reports indicate that Google has disabled keyword suggestion on Google China as of Friday, although foreign web site search is reportedly still active.

“We have been continually working to deal with pornographic content, and material that is harmful to children, on the Web in China,” Google said in a statement.

Chinese censorship of the Internet has been escalating steadily in recent days, with growing protest rising along with it. Protests have been visibly made most notably for a motion by the Chinese government to require the installation of a mandated program called Green Dam-Youth Escort on all computers sold in China after July 1, despite serious security vulnerabilities. The application will be able to control the sites and Internet activity performed on the host computer.

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