After big Internet names like Amazon or Yahoo, now it’s Google’s turn to venture into the world of online music. But don’t get to excited because Google’s Music Onebox is not a digital store from where you can download your favorite tune. Instead, it is a music search service available in China through which the users can search licensed music files.

In order to download music files and information about the artists and albums, the users will be directed to Top100.cn, a Chinese music website co-founded by basketball star Yao Ming.

"We are launching Music Onebox to give users an easy and legal way to find the music they're looking for, and to give music labels and publishers a new channel to distribute, promote and make money off of their valuable music content," a Google spokesperson explained.

China’s Internet population made a remarkable progress in the past few years: in 2006, there were 137 million Internet users in the country. In 2007, the population grew by 53 percent, and the numbers continue to increase.

Last month, The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a report that 253 million Chinese went online by the end of June, a 56 percent increase over 2007. Of them, 214 million have access to broadband Internet, which amounts to 80 percent of subscribers. There are also 12.2 million domains under the .cn top level domain, surpassing Germany which stands on second place.

Still, the percentage of the population who uses the Internet is 19 percent, well below the United States' 71 percent. The world average is around 21 percent.

Last year, CNNIC revealed that the China’s most popular Internet application is online music (181 million users or 86.6 percent), closely followed by Instant messaging (170 million users or 81 percent). Video (76.9 percent), news (73.6 percent) and searches (72.4 percent) have also ranked high in the list of favorite use of the Internet in China.