Search engine outfit Google is expected to announce its exit strategy from China when Brin gets back into the office after the weekend.

We are expecting Google to announce that google.cn will close as soon as April 10 on the grounds that China had refused to allow the end to self-censorship of the site. Google plans to continue to operate its Android and other services in the country and will maintain its research and development operations.

In an official blog post from Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, it said: "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all."

At the time Google accused the Chinese authorities of a "highly sophisticated and targeted" attack of its email system and its customers' email accounts. Although as time wore on it became increasingly unclear if the attack was sophisticated or inspired by the Chinese government.

Google has said that it will compensate the division's employees following the closure.