After the Kazakh government ordered all Kazakh domains --Internet addresses to route traffic to servers located only in Kazakhstan -- Google decided to direct its traffic elsewhere.
Google said its users in Kazakhstan will "experience a reduction in search quality" ... no longer surfing the Web with a custom site. But the company says it had little choice.
Google is the top search engine there with with 50% of the traffic, followed by Russian search engine Yandex NV at 24%.
A Freedom House spokesman observed that the Kazakh government's order was a "worrisome sign" similar to China's content restrictions for websites based there.