by Search Copywriter
D. Warburton
D. Warburton
Yahoo! has been criticised by the Alibaba Group over its support of Google's 'new approach to China,' following cyber-attacks that may have affected both search engines.BBC News reports that Yahoo! has "aligned" itself with Google in condemning the violation of internet privacy that saw personal email accounts being accessed last month. However, the company has been criticised by its Chinese owner the Alibaba Group - which bought most of the search giant's Chinese assets in 2005 - for taking this stance, due to a lack of concrete evidence.
John Spelich of the Alibaba Group stated on Saturday: "Alibaba Group has communicated to Yahoo! that Yahoo!'s statement that it is 'aligned' with the position Google took last week was reckless given the lack of facts in evidence."
Mr Spelich was clear to add: "Alibaba doesn't share this view."
Yahoo! voiced its support for Google on Wednesday, when a spokesperson condemned "any attempts to infiltrate company networks to obtain user information."
The company did not reveal whether it had been a target of hackers, but continued: "We stand aligned that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as Internet pioneers must all oppose."
Despite some Chinese reports, Google has not yet pulled out of China and no changes to filtering search results have yet been made, with Jessica Powell confirming it was "business as usual" for the Mountain View giant.
With more internet users than any other country - approximately 350 million - China is a lucrative search market. If Google chooses to withdraw from China, that market will be left open for rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo! - unless the latter continues to follow in Google's footsteps, that is.
