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January 29, 2006
Google's Stance
Google's Blog Entry on the China Situation.
Just to add a bit of editorial to this, I can understand some of google's points, and don't just see this as corporate positioning. Its a little strange in our world market to assume that we just stay away from communist markets, just because of our "holier than thou" approach to democracy. I can understand a company who's major service is information itself would want to at least have a prescence in a market before trying to fight against that market.
Posted by Jeff at January 29, 2006 01:54 PM
Comments
jeff i think the problem in this case is that the fact if google stands for "do(ing) less evil" then isn't sacrificing their mission statement fundamentally flawed?
while i agree this is more than just a black-and-white issue, and that some representation in China better than none, i believe google is motivated by profits. they are a capitalist business, held accountable to their quarterly profits by their shareholders. if they are able to sacrifice some of the quality of their product in return for a substantial gain in their user base, then isn't that the most important issue to google in this matter?
"We ultimately reached our decision by asking ourselves which course would most effectively further Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. Or, put simply: how can we provide the greatest access to information to the greatest number of people?"
I view the preceeding paragraph as entirely based on corporate positioning. If Google's goal is to collect and organize all of the world's data on the internet, then how can they justify different shades of rose colored glasses based on the host country's political agenda?
Posted by: mohit at January 30, 2006 04:08 AM