The Web as History_Using Web Archives to Understand the Past and the Present

This article mainly discusses about how web functions in society and the relationship between web archives and researchers. The most impressive part I found in this article is when articulating whether the web is a single entity or a series of clusters. The author mentions China as an example. I would like to further develop this example.

As known, China is using a great fire wall to ring fence the web. I think one reason for doing so is to promote development of domestic product. For instance, China blocked Google and developed Baidu as a substitute of Google. Although Baidu is limited when searching for some politically sensitive words, it still becomes the most popular searching engine in China. Another example is TaoBao.com which is facilitated to be the largest online shopping website as a result of government blocking e-bay. And for reasons of language, the China online consumer market is seen as daunting for many foreign brand owners, which further assists TaoBao to monopolize the online market.

As a result, 90% of ecommerce in China is done in domestic online marketplaces. This might create false impression that “Chinese citizens are primarily interested in content produced in China”, just as Wu and Taneja point out. But personally, I doubt this comment. In TaoBao’s case, government is deliberately building up a new online market culture in a confined local sphere taking advantage of controlling the access to web and possibilities to reach outside.

For most of Chinses citizens, in most cases, they are limited to only domestic online shopping website. Before they realize it, their life is already taken over by overwhelming advertisement of local sites like TaoBao, Tianmao.com, leaving no space for even questioning where to find other choices. The door to outside is blocked and no one even notice that. But I wonder if they were offered multiple choices, would they still choose what they chose before?