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HONG KONG, China Googles biggest move against Chinese censorship in two years has won plenty of applause in the West, but skeptics say it does nothing to help Chinese web users themselves.

Last week, the internet giant rolled out a new feature on its Hong Kong-based search site that warns users when a term they are searching for will be blocked, resulting in being shut out from Google for a minute and a half.

Because Google does not comply with Chinese censors as Chinas largest search engine, Baidu, does the government automatically blocks a wide range of words, including some apparently benign and non-political terms. Yangtze River, for example, lands users in the penalty box because of its similarity in Chinese to the name for former president Jiang Zemin.

Google rolled out the feature to plenty of fanfare, with an official blog post and video demonstrating how it works. It is the companys most confrontational public move against Chinas censors since it left the mainland in 2010 after it was hacked by Chinese attackers.

More from GlobalPost: Google to alert Chinese users when keywords being censored

But will it actually make a difference for Chinas internet users at large?

Some experts say that Googles policy is a lot less productive than other ways of bringing better information to Chinese users.

Tricia Wang, a sociologist researching the digital habits of Chinese people, sees this as a sign that Google is trying to be nothing more than a niche search engine in China."

I dont see how this actually reaches their goal, she says. First it only antagonizes the government more, and thereby could make it even harder for the existing user base to access Google. So it could be counterproductive. Second, its targeting people who are already their existing users, so theyre preaching to the preachers."

Ordinary Chinese users are aware of censorship, she says, but what matters most to them is getting useful results. Google's new policy does not make that any easier. The only difference is that now, people searching for the Yangtze River on Google will get a warning to change their language or be blocked. On Baidu, people can search directly for the Yangtze because the politically sensitive results have already been weeded out.

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Google's latest anti-censorship play in China a net loss?