Google's corporate motto: Don't Be Evil. Google is the fastest growing company in the history of the world. Google has become a sort of collective unconscious for netizens. How did we live without it. If you don't know what something is, or want more information about it, Google It. Web search, news, maps, images, video and email are all right there. If you have a personalized home page, you can see local weather, a daily quote.
Google today launched it's new Chinese site: http://google.cn . Censorship comes standard.
Searches for Taiwanese Independence, or the Dalai Lama bring up completely blank search pages. Google responds to its decision by saying:
In deciding how best to approach the Chinese--or any--market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interest of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions.
Should an American company really help a foreign government oppress it's people. A company that to us provides such a wide variety of information is denying that information to the people of China. Why? Previously, google.cn was not censored by Google, but was censored by the Chinese government for years. People in the PRC realized they had trouble with certain types of searches in 2002.
"While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission," the company stated.
So, now Google is in compliance with Chinese law, and can operate servers from within the country. It is surprising to find out that Google also censors sites in Germany and France. Here is an interesting article on Censorship of the Internet.
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