Google Turns Red

"Google is making what one executive described as a ``targeted entry,'' offering Internet search but not e-mail, blogging, video or messaging services. As of Tuesday, some Chinese Internet users were able to access the www.google.cn Web site.

They were not, however, able to search for information on the ``three T's'': Taiwan independence, Tibet independence and Tiananmen Square, which are all forbidden topics in China. And Google is not yet offering its e-mail service, called GMail."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13708107.htm

So the moral of the story is...we should all thank our lucky stars for GMail. I for one, am glad I can search anything and everything on Taiwanese pop stars, blog about how communism sucks, and berate China for being a big bully on AIM. You see, we actually exercise our civil liberties everytime we Google naughty words like "Tibet."

I love Google's hypocrisy in exercising free speech when it suits them. In other words, keep the porn in the U.S. for 12 year-old viewing but limit the spread of ideas on Taiwanese independence in China.

Google created a lot of buzz when they put the phrase "don't be evil" in the prospectus for their public filing, indeed they were hailed as a new and visionary kind of company. In the end "don't be evil" is pure bullshit, steamy stinking crap that you have to scrape off the bottom of your shoe. - Jeff Nolan

Evil empire building activity doesn't go unnoticed. This Google decision, while it is a capitulating money-grubbing corporate move, hopefully will have positive long term effects for capitalism. We ain't gonna change China unless we get in first. Maybe, over time capitalism will permeate throughout China in all these innocuous ways until it wins over.... Or maybe I'm too wide-eyed and hopeful for change. The cultural revolution and Mao worshipping was not that long ago. But hey, don't estimate the power of Silicon Valley innovation and China's desperation to hold on to the Olympics.