Google Inc said on Friday that Chinese authorities had renewed the license of its domestic website, securing its presence in the world's biggest Internet market.

"We are very pleased that the government has renewed our license and we look forward to continuing to provide Web search and local products to our users in China," Google's Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, said on his blog.

Search engine Google.cn has been engaged in a contentious spat with Chinese authorities the last few weeks, which kept the renewal of its license up in the air.

Edward Yu, president of Chinese research firm Analysys International, said the renewal is a sign that the soured relationship between Google and China is improving.

"I think it's just a start for Google and the Chinese authorities to find a solution that both sides can accept after months of fighting," he said, adding that he believes Google has found a proper way to operate in China.

Yu also said it will help the company gain approval from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping for its online mapping service.

After witnessing constant growth in the Chinese market following the launch of Google.cn in 2006, Google said in January it was no longer willing to provide censored search results on the site, starting what turned into a drawn-out battle with Chinese authorities.

In March, Google said it was rerouting all its mainland traffic to Hong Kong, where the legal system is different. But the company still retained some services like music search, translation and Google Map on Google.cn, which was run by Google's domestic joint venture.

The company stopped automatically redirecting users to its Hong Kong site on June 29, a move the company said it had to do if it wanted its license renewed.

It is unclear whether Google will resume auto-redirecting.

Its home page remained unchanged on Friday. It had been updated on Monday with the addition of links to three services in China.

Google's license is valid until 2012, but must be renewed yearly. The government can shut down websites that fail to renew their licenses.

During its dispute with Chinese authorities, Google's share of the search-engine market in China fell to 30.9 percent in the first quarter from 35.6 percent three months earlier. Advertisers also reduced their spending on the search engine, according to figures from Analysys International.

(China Daily July 10, 2010)