IN 2001 human-rights activists in China crowed that a little-known search engine called Google was the most important tool ever created to skirt state censors. Users could retrieve content that Beijing banned by clicking to call up a “cached” copy of the web page, stored by Google. Soon, however, Google itself was being sporadically blocked. The firm was instructed to deactivate that particular feature, and for a short time its web address was even re-routed by Chinese network operators to the website of a local rival.

　　2001年，一种鲜为人知的、名叫Google的搜索引擎成为那时被用来避开国家审查的最重要工具。中国人权激进分子为此而幸灾乐祸。用户可以通过点击打开由Google存储的“缓冲存储”网页备份，从而重新获得被政府封杀的相关内容。不过，Google公司自己很快也被不定期关闭。该公司接到通知，要求它取消那种特定功能，并且中国网络运营者甚至曾一度将该公司的网址链接改到一家中国本地搜索引擎（google的竞争对手）上。