Google Maps Web App Inaccessible in China When Using ‘HTTPS’

It appears that the secure ‘https’ version of Google Maps – at Maps.google.com – is now inaccessible, perhaps blocked, in China. But Google’s mapping service works fine in a browser with the non-encrypted ‘http’ in the URL. The Chinese-hosted version of the service at Ditu.google.cn is fine, but its ‘https’ version is borked, loading up the web page but leaving the map area blank.

There are numerous reports of the inaccessibility on both Twitter and Weibo (see below) from across China. But the obscure nature of the ‘https’ block on Maps.google.com has made it not so noticeable as a full block on the URL. People using browsers that tend to revert to the more secure ‘https’ – such as Google’s own Chrome – will find this more of a challenge. Folks who always use ‘http’ and whose browser doesn’t interfere might never notice this new disruption. The secure connection denoted by “https” is important as, to quote Wikipedia, it “provides authentication of the web site and associated web server that one is communicating with, which protects against man-in-the-middle attacks.”

Update (RM): Here’s a quick survey we’re doing among our Chinese readers and friends to find out more about what’s going on. As you can see, many are reporting that with https, maps.google.com cannot be viewed. If you are in China, we’d love it if you could let us know if it’s accessible for you.

Many Google products are interfered with – perhaps by the Great Firewall – in a way that renders them unstable and sometimes inaccessible. Gmail is one; all Google searches often return connection errors as well. Google Maps might be a new victim of this partial throttling, but at least its China-hosted Ditu.google.cn is exempt from this for now. So as long as folks located in China use that web app URL and not its global one, things should work fine.

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) maps service has long been under scrutiny in China, and the country’s Bureau of Mapping and Surveying has not yet publicly confirmed that Google Maps has even been issued a permit to operate in China.

Here are some reactions to the inaccessibility on Twitter and Weibo:

@SirSteven In Chrome I can’t not use https — try to do so, it forwards to https and doesn’t load. IE loads http Gmaps fine.

— Matthew Stinson (@stinson) July 5, 2012

@SirSteven @larrysalibra GMaps has been showing up as blocked on Tianjin ISPs for at least 3 days, maybe more.