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Wed 25 Jan, 2006 11:44 am
on sunday the CBC broadcast part 1 of it's china special - part 2 next sunday at 8 pm - not to be missed !
a chinese entrepeneur who is ready to take on google was interviewed.
he said : "when the crocodile (meaning china) swims into the ocean, the shark (united states) will eat it. but when the shark swims upstream and encounters the crocodie in its own habitat ... watch out !"
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Breaking News from The Globe and MailGoogle knuckles under to ChinaBy Mathew Ingram
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Globe and Mail Update
"Don't be more evil than necessary:"
As many expected, Google has launched a Chinese version of its search engine (NYT link) in an attempt to grow in that massive market, and to compete with local search providers such as Baidu.com, and it has agreed to filter its results to comply with government restrictions -- or what several wags have referred to as the "great firewall of China." The service will also not have Google e-mail or blogs.
This isn't terribly surprising, given some of the activity by Google and other tech giants when it comes to China -- such as the shutting down of a noted dissident's blog by Microsoft's MSN, and the identification of another dissident (who was later arrested) by Yahoo. And Google has been accused of at least helping to filter results before, including in this Harvard study.
It's obvious that companies such as Google see such activity as part of the cost of doing business in a country like China, and no doubt they would make the argument that if they didn't comply then someone else would. It's still a sad development, however, and it certainly throws into sharp relief how the search company's "don't be evil" mantra can be modified when necessary to fit the needs of the business.
John Battelle says Sergey Brin told him on balance Google figures it's better to be in China than not. I'm not sure I agree. Danny Sullivan says it's more complicated than that, and Philipp Lenssen says Google should come clean about what they censor and where. Good Morning Silicon Valley says it's like "watching little Anakin grow up into Darth Vader," and the Mercury News says Google should change its motto to "Don't be more evil than necessary" (thanks to IPDemocracy.com for pointing me to that one).
Google also keeps a record of all our searches, for our own good.
i'm relieved to hear that !
just read on german news that court has ruled in germany, that internet providers are only allowed to store the internet addresses required for their billing process. so it seems they are not allowed to store the address of any recipient of a message. hbg
Google's motto is "Do no evil" (or something along those lines), though I guess there have to be exceptions when the bottom line is at stake...
Google's motto may be "do no evil" but Wall Street could give a d**n and might even offer it at a discount if the return were large enough and that is what is driving Google's behavior. ie, the price of it's stock. .
when visiting florence we spent some time looking at the little stalls on the bridge spanning the river po.
we were told that originally there were some butcher stalls on the bridge. during the summer the stalls would give off some not so nice odours. apparently the local rulers told the butchers to get lost and instead gold-smiths were invited to set up their stalls. now the odours were gone because "money does not have a bad smell".
there is still a saying in the german language that apparently dates back to those times : "geld stinkt nicht ! " - "money doesn't stink !".
google has also found out that "money does not stink !". hbg
I've read that once individual Chinese have access to "purified" Google they will be able to circumvent many of the restrictions.
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