After Google’s announcement of possibly pulling the search engine giant from China on the 12th of Jan following sophisticated attempted hacks, copycat sites have emerged in China. Introducing Goojje – Google’s ‘little sister’.
Goojje is a play on words, sounding like sister while ‘Google’ in maderin sounds very much like big brother. The creators of Goojje even left a message on their front page roughly translated as “Sister was very happy when brother gave up the thought of leaving and stayed for sister”. Many are interpiting this as a mockery of Google potentially pulling out of China while others believe it is a plea for Google to stay.
Goojje Home- page suspiciously similar to Google
It is very clear that the site has modeled itself off the searching giant from the style of layout to the Google font and colours. There is even a small nod to Baidu with the paw print in its logo. The search engine returns many of the same results of Google but only ‘clean’ government approved websites. It is well known that the Chinese government has implemented filters on the country’s internet access dubbed as The Great Firewall of China, with any content that is deemed ‘undesirable’ blocked out. This includes many foreign sites such as the BBC news site.
The Google owned Youtube was also reproducted with a Chinese makeover. A variation of Youtube called Youtubecn popped up not long after Goojje showing videos that are usually blocked on the Youtube’s site. Although its slow and often described as glichy, Youtbecn is gaining alot of momentum.
Google refused to make any comment on Goojje or other copycat sites.
