Google Refuses to Keep Censoring Chinese Content

[ark123]

At least throw in a "You can use google to look up games, specialists say" to tie it in with the site.

 

[ark123]

Google is number one pretty much everywhere but China, the biggest stain on its rep was agreeing to censor stuff for the Chinese Government. They lose out on a market they have a small share in, and gain massive credibility everywhere else; seems a pretty smart move to me.

Hurting your shareholders bottomline is never a smart thing. As a share holder of Google i dont care if they had to censor themselves in china! so long as they are getting business from them. Since when does a search engine require 'credibility' to be good? oO

while i admire there courage to stand up for there beliefs, it doesnt take an expert to see this as a fiscal blunder especially since china is probably the fastest growing market. So either this politically motivated ploy will guarantee more business in the free world or they would have shot themselves in the foot when some other company make crazy money off them.

all i know is time to sell some google!

You are misinformed.
The real REAL reason Big G is pulling out of China is that their government has a team of hackers that have managed to infiltrate gmail servers and extract information about dissidents, but the notion that a search engine doesn't necessarily have to actually find what you're looking for is stupid.
Google has 90% of the European market and around 70% of America. They're about 30% in China. They're not losing a whole lot by taking this stance if you consider the PR holocaust that would happen if it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that dissidents were found and executed because of information pulled from gmail accounts. ALL google has is their public image. They sell advertising, so they depend on loyalty.

 

[Davrel]

Beware he who would deny you information...for in his heart, he deems himself your master.

 

[Mercurio128]

Google is number one pretty much everywhere but China, the biggest stain on its rep was agreeing to censor stuff for the Chinese Government. They lose out on a market they have a small share in, and gain massive credibility everywhere else; seems a pretty smart move to me.

Hurting your shareholders bottomline is never a smart thing. As a share holder of Google i dont care if they had to censor themselves in china! so long as they are getting business from them. Since when does a search engine require 'credibility' to be good? oO

while i admire there courage to stand up for there beliefs, it doesnt take an expert to see this as a fiscal blunder especially since china is probably the fastest growing market. So either this politically motivated ploy will guarantee more business in the free world or they would have shot themselves in the foot when some other company make crazy money off them.

all i know is time to sell some google!

You are misinformed.
The real REAL reason Big G is pulling out of China is that their government has a team of hackers that have managed to infiltrate gmail servers and extract information about dissidents, but the notion that a search engine doesn't necessarily have to actually find what you're looking for is stupid.
Google has 90% of the European market and around 70% of America. They're about 30% in China. They're not losing a whole lot by taking this stance if you consider the PR holocaust that would happen if it was proven beyond reasonable doubt that dissidents were found and executed because of information pulled from gmail accounts. ALL google has is their public image. They sell advertising, so they depend on loyalty.

This is exactly right. Google needs to retain its credibility to stay in business, I personally think it saw that it was at risk of being pulled into some nasty Chinese crackdown and decided it would be best not to be involved. Better to take a hit in one market than risk the public image of the whole company in the event that the Chinese Government uses them to commit horrible acts against dissidents etc.

I don't see how China plans to keep up this censorship malarky, it was hard enough before the internet, but now that China is growing and its citizens are getting richer (and better educated) it seems unlikely they can continue to pull the wool over peoples eyes for much longer. Maybe the government should put more effort into governing their country and less into worrying if people are googling emabarassing pictures of their officials

 

[Misterian]

I'm glad someone is sticking up to the People's Republic.

maybe just a while after this, they'll have 2nd thoughts on at least some of the flaws in their goverment (like aforementioned censorship, dictitorial habits, and their issues with human rights.)

 

[AceDiamond]

Got to love Google for this. They took a lot of stick for caving into China for easily before, I'm glad to see they had the courage to admit they were wrong and cease bending to the whims of the blatantly corrupt Chinese government.

Now if only they'd do the same to Warner Music Group, Viacom and so forth constantly getting stuff pulled/blocked on YouTube. Still I'm glad they're not going the Rupert Murdoch route and kowtowing to China anymore.

 

[CoverYourHead]

Goddamn it China, get out of your own people's heads already! This is going to end in civil war eventually. It's only a matter of time.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

Since when does a search engine require 'credibility' to be good?

Pretty much ever since there was more than one of them and they had to start competing with each other? In general, the search engines that don't have "credibility" (i.e. people don't trust them/their results) haven't been particularly successful. In the long run, censored results and things like paid ad placement in search results (as opposed to clearly marked ads that are separate) have driven people away from companies that have tried to pull things like that and to their competitors.

Being able to (somewhat) trust that the company isn't censoring or filtering things or screwing up ranking with paid placement (or at least is doing it less than the alternative choices) does seem to affect the choices of the users, which affects whether or not the company makes money or not. In the long run (which a lot of people seem to be incapable of thinking about these days, which is sad and leads to crap like the economic disaster the world is in now), doing anything to lessen any goodwill or trust your customers have in you will only hurt you.

 

[Eri]

Google is number one pretty much everywhere but China, the biggest stain on its rep was agreeing to censor stuff for the Chinese Government. They lose out on a market they have a small share in, and gain massive credibility everywhere else; seems a pretty smart move to me.

Hurting your shareholders bottomline is never a smart thing. As a share holder of Google i dont care if they had to censor themselves in china! so long as they are getting business from them. Since when does a search engine require 'credibility' to be good? oO

while i admire there courage to stand up for there beliefs, it doesnt take an expert to see this as a fiscal blunder especially since china is probably the fastest growing market. So either this politically motivated ploy will guarantee more business in the free world or they would have shot themselves in the foot when some other company make crazy money off them.

all i know is time to sell some google!

If you cannot abide by your own rules and morals, then you have nothing.

 

[Vaccine]

Google should make a Liberty Prime irl.

 

[firedfns13]

Google should make a Liberty Prime irl.

Good for Google. I just wish more companies would follow their example. There are some more important things than just profit in the world.

 

[Mr. Gency]

I instantly think of this:

Agreed. Anyway, Google may suffer for this, but more power to them.

 

[Sporky111]

I find it funny how China is accusing Google of politicizing itself when it's not doing what they want. Everything was fine and dandy when Google made the special censored web search according to the countries political stance.

Good on Google for sticking to their values, maybe more sites will follow suit and maybe push China to loosen it's death grip on information in the country.

 

[Mozared]

To the people who say this is going to cost Google money: free advertising in the shape of "Oh look they're sticking to their principles aren't they awesome?" is bound to make up for a shitload of that.

That aside from what we actually think about this.

 

[Scrythe]

I can imagine most internet users in China are quite familiar with Tor at this point.

And not to sound like a grouch, but how is this video game related?

 

[qbanknight]

well it was an interesting experiment while it lasted, but good to know that google considers free speech and privacy to be important no matter what some dickhead communist regime tells it so, fuck you commies! (i love china, it just has a shitte government)

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Maybe China will start using Bing? Oh wait, Microsoft doesnt like them because the country freely pirates their software. Maybe Yahoo will become the norm there, they seem to have no qualms about pulling down their pants and bending over whenever anyone looks in their direction and grunts...
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=102&threadID=204894&start=0

It should be worth noting that Google has decried the Great Firewall of Australia too, so if they didn't take this stand against China they would like hypocrites.

 

[doctorwhofan]

Hmmm... lose money to sleep better at night. A good night's sleep is better than any amount of cash.

 

[Nimzar]

Getting your servers hacked by the Chinese Government: The lives of human rights activists

Trying to pressure the Chinese Government: Tens of thousands of dollars

Pulling your business out of the Chinese market: Millions annually

Sticking by your principles and telling the Chinese Government to FUCK OFF!: Priceless

There are some places that Freedom of Speech can't be found. For everywhere else there's Google.

 

[DoW Lowen]

China: Fuck you free speech and fuck you democracy!

Wait, that's a Japanese stereotype.

Anyway... I never expected google to do this, when they finally decide they have enough resources to stage an international coup, they have my vote.