Little future for Google in China without search

Google, involved in high-stakes brinkmanship with the Chinese government, might still seek ways to market other products in the country even if it quits its China search business. But without search, its most important business in China, the technology giant would struggle to retain a foothold in the world's biggest Internet market by users, said analysts.

The most promising non-search area of business for Google, said analysts, is its Android platform, an open source mobile operating system, already adopted by China Mobile's OPhone and Dell's Mini 3, which was launched in China late last year. But even this product could stall if Google were to no longer offer its most popular services. "Android ... has potential but if it offers any of the Google services like Gmail or search then it may have a problems once Google leaves," said iResearch analyst Hao Jun Bo. Other Google products hold even less promise in China's tightly controlled online market. Those include Google Voice and Google Books, a searchable digital library comprising millions of scanned books.