China’s month-long Google clampdown hits businesses

Nearly a month after China intensified its clampdown on Google’s services, many Chinese businesses are discovering how exposed they are to the US search company, whose fortunes in China are hostage to the so-called Great Firewall, designed to keep out pernicious foreign influences. Real estate companies, private taxi cab hailers and smartphone online gamblers are finding to their irritation that things that they took for granted – receiving email, getting a ride to the airport, or buying a $4 million house in Florida -- are becoming more cumbersome than usual.