Google ChinaOK, so it’s not technically that sneaky, or is it? We know Google has had a major issue regarding it’s service in mainland China and that the Chinese have insisted that Google be responsible for the censorship of its own materials, even though what was supposed to be censored was never actually specified, but would anyone have imagined Google employing such a cheeky technique to deliver results illegally (almost – the jury’s still out on the legality) to China. It seems rather hypocritical to me. I mean, it’s not like they’re doing a little ducking and diving like serving differing content to visitors and spiders. Google aren’t playing a game to see how to squeeze back into a lost market are they? Do no harm, remember? How about (potentially) breaking the law of another country attempting to use a (temporary and potential) loophole in a system? Is breaking a law, going against a legal agreement or bending the rules contrary to it’s own policies? I would expect so.

At a regular foreign ministry news briefing, Ms Jiang said:

China like other countries administers the internet according to law.

Yes, it’s law, predictable answer that tells us nothing, but true, none-the-less. Google walk into a country, give the kids a taster and then set up an illegal, or at the very least, unwelcome stall on the borders of the country. When website marketers use technology to game visibility in the search engines in a way  that is contrary to Google’s terms and conditions of inclusion, they don’t waste any time. But hold on! How about a sneaky Kansas City Shuffle? I don’t endorse censorship in any way whatsoever, but Google don’t really think that they could trigger a revolution now do they? So what are they playing at? But all is not lost because at the very least, I’m sure they ‘ll regain plenty of LoveRank 🙂

Google conceded to China’s demands in 2006 and owned 30% of the Chinese market. No small potatoes when we know that the chinese search market is said to be worth an ice cool $1bn. Nice, the chinese market is experiencing explosive growth, making for many little clicks on many hugely profitable ads.

Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said that the accounts of dozens of US, China and Europe-based users of its Gmail service who are advocates of human rights in China had been “routinely accessed by third parties”. Does this mean that he thinks it was China doing the spying? If so, how is redirecting requests from China to Hong Kong going to help? Ultimately, China will block the requests being served from Hong Kong and there will be very little Google will be able to do about it. So why bother? With so much money at stake, where on earth will all of this lead to and what, if anything do Google have up their sleeve?

Below is the dashboard displaying the current services available in China at the time of posting this (click the image to view the latest)

I personally think that it is wrong that there is such a mind numbing amount of censorship in China. It makes me feel terrible when I think of just how bad the situation is there and not just in terms of censorship, but this post isn’t about China, it’s about Google, and they are going to win many hearts back again, that’s for sure.

Here’s what Sergey Brin had to say and his sense that Hong Kong was the right step.

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