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In case you didn't know. Google is not a charity, but a business organization. It would have been silly for them not to do business with China - when most west

by pavs 17y ago

In case you didn't know. Google is not a charity, but a business organization. It would have been silly for them not to do business with China - when most western nations and companies does it. Some level of censorship does outweigh the benefits of having google.cn. But google being google, and perhaps the only company that has the balls to do this, will most likely pull out of china if they don't get their way. I can't think of any other company doing this, the potential for business is incredible in china, which has more internet users than USA. This is BIG.

netcan 17y ago
Also, when you think about the concession they had to make, it wasn't all that big: Exclude from Google results any sites that cannot be viewed from China. That is arguably the right thing to do from a usability, if not from a political, perspective.
- gridspy 17y ago
  There is a lot of information about search results in the title, summary and cached versions alone. If the results are "sensitive" to the government, that content is highly likely to contradict the sanitised history that is being handed down.
  - netcan 17y ago
    True. I don't doubt this at all. But.. imagine that the reason you couldn't reach these sites was not political (eg, pay wall). Wouldn't you want your search engine to give you ten links that work.
    - gridspy 17y ago
      Of course in this case it is about events such as citizens being run down by tanks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_19... "Currently, due to strong Chinese government censorship including Internet censorship, the news media are forbidden to report anything related to the protests. Websites related to the protest are blocked on the mainland.[94] A search for Tiananmen Square protest information on the Internet in Mainland China largely returns no results, apart from the government-mandated version of the events and the official view, which are mostly found on Websites of People's Daily and other heavily-controlled media.[95]" If Google was hiding links to US websites that blocked international traffic, fair play. But we are talking about sites that are blocked by government mandate.
omouse 17y ago
Baidu, the Chinese search engine, has a little over double the market share of Google. If Google leaves, Baidu wins. Also, just because someone else has done something, doesn't mean you too should do it. The potential for business should be weighed against the ethical decision to do business with a totalitarian government. But I guess this is the West and we have no problem dealing with dictators and oppressors and their like anyway.

by pavs 17y ago

netcan 17y ago

Also, when you think about the concession they had to make, it wasn't all that big: Exclude from Google results any sites that cannot be viewed from China. That is arguably the right thing to do from a usability, if not from a political, perspective.

gridspy 17y ago
There is a lot of information about search results in the title, summary and cached versions alone. If the results are "sensitive" to the government, that content is highly likely to contradict the sanitised history that is being handed down.
- netcan 17y ago
  True. I don't doubt this at all. But.. imagine that the reason you couldn't reach these sites was not political (eg, pay wall). Wouldn't you want your search engine to give you ten links that work.
  - gridspy 17y ago
    Of course in this case it is about events such as citizens being run down by tanks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_19... "Currently, due to strong Chinese government censorship including Internet censorship, the news media are forbidden to report anything related to the protests. Websites related to the protest are blocked on the mainland.[94] A search for Tiananmen Square protest information on the Internet in Mainland China largely returns no results, apart from the government-mandated version of the events and the official view, which are mostly found on Websites of People's Daily and other heavily-controlled media.[95]" If Google was hiding links to US websites that blocked international traffic, fair play. But we are talking about sites that are blocked by government mandate.

omouse 17y ago

Baidu, the Chinese search engine, has a little over double the market share of Google. If Google leaves, Baidu wins. Also, just because someone else has done something, doesn't mean you too should do it. The potential for business should be weighed against the ethical decision to do business with a totalitarian government. But I guess this is the West and we have no problem dealing with dictators and oppressors and their like anyway.