Sunday, January 29, 2006

Hypocrisy - thy name is Google

Every competitor of Microsoft has used one theme to distinguish themselves from the Redmond giant - that of good v/s evil. And each time, they've just shown that they are either as evil as Microsoft or that they are supplicants of other evil forces. Apple went to town with how bad Microsoft was before letting it take a nice part of its pie. IBM tried doing it, but didn't cut much ice. The latest in the fray is Google - with their motto - "don't be evil". Yeah.

But as recent events have shown, Google is as willing as its corporate friends to throw human rights out of the window when the right amount of money is shown to its executives. A company that refuses to bow to the high and mighty US government has finally met its match in the People's Republic of China. Yes, Google will censor search results for searches emanating from China to suit the PRC's political masters. Yes, don't be evil, but just so long as you don't get the right amount of money.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

you expected more from google, right? perhaps the "Tank Man" response? ;]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tianasquare.jpg)

it was either this or risk being blocked in China altogether. i guess there does come a time when even Google must look out for number 1.

FWIW, the 19 year old Tank Man was taken out and shot, 2 weeks after that photograph was taken.

<quote>
... just so long as you don't get the right amount of money.
</quote>

you mean, just so long as you *do* :]. for the right price, perhaps i'd have done the same, and *that's* what disappoints me... no one's invincible anymore.

that's left yet *another* God-shaped hole that I've to fill, somehow.

kattricker said...

Gops just found another humorous one on this topic - http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/01/chinese_search_.html. Enjoy!

Gops said...

Totally - expected a better response from Google at least. Well, good luck filling the God-shaped hole.

Karthi, couldn't access the link - is any part of the URL missing?

kattricker said...

Lemme try again. Chineese Search Engines

Gops said...

Nice! Thanks Karthi :)

Balbir said...

A good philosopher would say

"You find only what you search for?"
What are the people of China searching for? Why should they find what they are not looking for?

Just curious about what other search engines like A9, MSN and Yahoo do?

Gops said...

Ballu,

Philosophy, eh? The problem is that in China you won't find what you are searching for. That is the issue, isn't it?

And yes, all other SE's block 'objectionable' sites. Funny thing is that some years back when the Indian govt asked Yahoo to restrict access to groups on yahoogroups, they disagreed quoting free speech. Then for some time ISPs in India were blocking yahoogroups...