Anyone want a second-hand motto?
| No sooner do I praise Google for their stance on the US Government's request for search terms etc than Google go and cave into China's massive censorship enterprise by agreeing to restrictions on what Chinese Googlers will be able to find using the search engine. Try it out - compare the results of searching on 'Tiananmen Square' at google.cn and google.co.uk. The word 'massacre' appears in the very first listing on the UK version - no sign of it on the Chinese version! China is obviously a massive market for Google with its advertising-based business model, but adding its weight to the 'great firewall of China', as the Guardian puts it, does seem to negate the much vaunted motto. The cynic might begin to think that their stand against the Whitehouse requests was a softener for this latest bit of business by Google. Google acknowledges that this move 'runs counter to its corporate ethic' but feels that it is somehow serving the greater good by providing information via its engine to the Chinese people directly, with servers based in the country. Hmmm.....not sure about that! Interestingly, Google has decided not to run either GMail or Blogger from within its Chinese set up - too many risks apparently for its corporate image. I suppose, however, it did hold out for a bit longer than either Yahoo! or Microsoft......... |
© John Connell
The views expressed in this weblog are entirely my own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other individuals or organizations. All sources will be fully acknowledged.
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