Google uncensors its search engine in China

[waht]

You can now search for Tienanmen Square Massacre in China. Wonder how long it will last.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8581393.stm

Google has stopped censoring its search results in China, ignoring warnings by the country's authorities.

The US company said its Chinese users would be redirected to the uncensored pages of its Hong Kong website.

In January, Google had complained about a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China".

Nice comeback. I love google.

 

[Office_Shredder]

That's a good idea. I went to google.cn just to look up the massacre so I can tell my grandchildren I was there when you could do that

 

[MotoH]

I searched a bunch of phrases that included the words "china" and "sucks"

Just because I can.

 

[NeoDevin]

Here's Google's comments on the matter:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html

 

[waht]

Here's Google's comments on the matter:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html

From the blog there is a link to check the current Chinese google censorship status:

http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en

 

[mgb_phys]

Here's Google's comments on the matter:

Google is a business. At some point the bad press in the US and Europe from censoring China will result in decreased market share and ad revenue.
It's market share in China is small compared to the native competitor Baidu, and presumably it's ad revenue from marketing to the average Chinese is even smaller. It may do better with affluent middle class Chinese by not being aligned with the government.

As long as $sales_loss_west > $sales_gain_china they will stop censoring.

If the US clamped down on say, advertising online gambling, Google would be just as quick to implement censorship there.

 

[spacemanspiff]

If the US clamped down on say, advertising online gambling, Google would be just as quick to implement censorship there.

Google already does. It has a good list of sites it will not do business with.

Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:

Pornography, adult or mature content
Violent content
Content related to racial intolerance or advocacy against any individual, group or organisation
Excessive profanity
Hacking/cracking content
Gambling or casino-related content
Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content
Sales of beer or hard alcohol
Sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products
Sales of prescription drugs
Sales of weapons or ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns)
Sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods
Sales or distribution of coursework or student essays
Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails
Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&gsessionid=kSyOZe0tkEYJax1Hcx8mLw

 

[NeoDevin]

Do you know anyone who actually stopped using Google because they were censoring in China? I don't.

Have you ever heard of an advertiser saying that they wouldn't advertise with Google because of the censorship in China? I haven't.

I'm not saying that neither of these has happened, but I don't really think it's a significant market share that Google has lost because of it.

 

[NeoDevin]

Google already does. It has a good list of sites it will not do business with.

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&gsessionid=kSyOZe0tkEYJax1Hcx8mLw

There you go: When faced with the decision between short term profit, and what they consider the "high road", they chose the high road. Not saying that I agree with their decision to refuse to advertise all of these sites, but I do believe they are honestly trying to uphold their motto "Don't be Evil".

 

[mgb_phys]

I'm not saying that neither of these has happened, but I don't really think it's a significant market share that Google has lost because of it.

No but it's pre-emptive, it doesn't take long for a Starbucks to go from being everybody's favorite to being regarded as just another McDonalds
The main problem is with governments, Google's next big market is to tie up the business of government data - with Google healthcare etc. Certainly in Europe it's difficult to sell the idea of trusting voter's health records to someone who works closely with the Chinese secret police.

ps. Google don't run adwords for those sites - but they also don't block them from search results. If you couldn't search for mp3s or porn on Google people would soon switch to a competitor.

 

[MotoH]

You can search for other things on google besides porn and torrents?

 

[waht]

Google already does. It has a good list of sites it will not do business with.

Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:

This just for advertising with google. That doesn't mean that google itself won't index sites on weapons, sex, alcohol, etc, except extremist terrorist sites. A company that wants to advertise their products with google are not allowed to put ads with certain content, that's all. But they still can have their website indexed by google.

 

[spacemanspiff]

The next obvious move for Google is to launch their own satellites and provide free satellite internet access for everyone in the world.

 

[Galteeth]

I searched a bunch of phrases that included the words "china" and "sucks"

Just because I can.

Ironically, while the old google.cn blocked "tianammen square" and youtube, it was no problem finding a proxy bouncer that would get u through the "great firewall."

 

[spacemanspiff]

Go Daddy is following Google's footsteps trying to get some publicity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...5141983884666038.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines