Web developers are having a hard time determining how their websites perform in China as internet censorship continues to tighten its grip on the country. The Japanese division of Chinese internet search site Baidu launched a tool that can analyze whether a website is easily accessible from China or not.
The service is mainly aimed at Japanese businesses who want to find out how their website is doing in China. They can check if a web domain is accessible in the country. In addition, it can also inform developers whether there are wrinkles on page delivery, like problems with fonts, slow page downloads, or failure to display content.
In addition to this, the service suggests steps on how to improve access and page delivery to clients in China. One of the most common suggestions is to replace most site embeds with Chinese-friendly websites.
For instance, messaging apps and social media like Twitter and Facebook could use an alternative like WeChat. Likewise, video streaming sites like YouTube can be replaced by Youku. Of course, Google site search can be replaced by Baidu.
The service is made by the Japanese division of Baidu in cooperation with LXR, a company that makes Chinese-language websites. For $3,090, developers can get a full analysis of how their website is performing in China. Reports can be delivered a week after the client made the request for the service.
Meanwhile, for the English-speaking public, there have been a number of English websites that offer similar services.
Sites like Comparitech and The Great Firewall of China offer services that test whether a certain domain is accessible from China. Users just need to enter the website name and see if their site is censored. However, what they do is basically check if the mainland servers can access your site. They offer neither in-depth analysis nor suggestions on how to improve site access.
