Google's marketing executive in Egypt, Wael Ghonim, has been released by authorities according to several news reports.

Google had reported Ghonim missing since January 27 and had even started an email address, infoaboutwael@google.com, for people to send messages to if they knew or had information about his location. Ghonim was an activist in the early days of the Egyptian backlash against the Mubarak government and footage showed him being detained by authorities.

On January 25, Ghonim was believed to have hosted one of the first Facebook pages that organized the original protests. He also tweeted several times about his anti-Mubarak and anti-censorship beliefs.

On January 27, the day he went missing, Ghonim tweeted, Pray for Egypt. Very worried as it seems that government is planning a war crime tomorrow against people. We are all ready to die #Jan25.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on whether this could impact the company's relationship with Egypt. In the past, censorship has strained Google's relationship with other countries, notably China. After certain words were banned for search by the Chinese government, Google briefly flirted with the notion of closing down its Chinese offices and search engine. While the company did not go that far, it did move its mainland search service to Hong Kong.

Ghonim, who heads up Google's marketing efforts in the Middle East and North Africa, was not available for comment. There have been no new tweets on his page, and Google has yet to confirm if he is in fact free.

Video claiming to show footage of authorities dragging away Google marketing executive Wael Ghonim.

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