Google stopped censoring Internet search results in China in a move that was hailed by rights groups but drew an angry reaction from the Chinese authorities.

The Internet titan announced in a blog post that it had begun redirecting mainland Chinese users of its Chinese-language search engine Google.cn to an uncensored Google site in Hong Kong. Google's decision came a little more than two months after the Mountain View, California-based company threatened to close its Chinese operations because of cyber attacks it said originated from China.