Reports of Dragonfly surfaced last month and a number of Google's employees pushed back on the plan when it came to light. Subsequent reports have provided details on how the search engine might work. Among those expressing concerns over Dragonfly are six US Senators, who sent a letter to Google in August, seeking additional information about the rumored project and calling the move "deeply troubling" if it was in fact in the works.

Throughout today's hearing, Enright claimed that the company was "not close to launching a search engine in China" and a spokesperson told VentureBeat that the company's "work on search has been exploratory." So while details about the project are still in the wind, these statements suggest that Google is at least considering bringing search back to China.