Live data from Hacker News

A new approach to China

googleblog.blogspot.com

51–60 of 392 posts

Re: A new approach to China

#51
post #4

It's easy to shut down the site when you are losing the search game to local competition. In any case, even though I find freedom of speech to be necessary and encouraged, I do not think that Google is right to imply in this blog post that the Chinese government is behind the attacks.

Why do you defend the Chinese government at every chance you get?

Edit: I am talking about this http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1036908 in particular.

Re: A new approach to China

#52
post #18
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They shouldn't have even opened an office in China. What the heck did they expect to happen?

In case you didn't know. Google is not a charity, but a business organization. It would have been silly for them not to do business with China - when most western nations and companies does it. Some level of censorship does outweigh the benefits of having google.cn. But google being google, and perhaps the only company that has the balls to do this, will most likely pull out of china if they don't get their way. I ca…

Also, when you think about the concession they had to make, it wasn't all that big:

Exclude from Google results any sites that cannot be viewed from China.

That is arguably the right thing to do from a usability, if not from a political, perspective.

Re: A new approach to China

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The targeting of Chinese human rights activists' email accounts don't seem Suspicious to you? Exactly what /private/ group would have motive for this?

It seems very likely it's the Chinese govt. But I don't doubt that other governments have an interest in what activists all over the world do, including our own.

A fair point. Heard recently that the "Iranian Cyber Army" attacked Baidu as well. Nothing major - they weren't able to do much more than hassle Twitter, and they didn't do much to Baidu either.

Re: A new approach to China

#54
post #4

It's easy to shut down the site when you are losing the search game to local competition. In any case, even though I find freedom of speech to be necessary and encouraged, I do not think that Google is right to imply in this blog post that the Chinese government is behind the attacks.

Yours is a ridiculously cynical argument. 17% of China is far larger than 100% of Germany or France.

Re: A new approach to China

#55

This is incredible. This is the first time, I have seen a LARGE company * Putting its users above profits * Stand up to Chinese Government. Since accounts of human rights activists were targeted, this operation was clearly done at the behest of Chinese Government. I'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop. It is time the world stands up to China. If a corporation, whose main aim is to gene…

And for all these years, Google China has done decent job by providing Google Pinyin, Goolge Music for China to the country. I really appreciate that. Hoping this decision was just a beginning of a bigger picture.

Re: A new approach to China

#56

This is incredible. This is the first time, I have seen a LARGE company * Putting its users above profits * Stand up to Chinese Government. Since accounts of human rights activists were targeted, this operation was clearly done at the behest of Chinese Government. I'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop. It is time the world stands up to China. If a corporation, whose main aim is to gene…

I hate to be cynical but isn't Google's share in China only equivalent to a pawn sacrifice? If you consider the brand++; in other markets maybe even a gain.

Re: A new approach to China

#57
post #46

Wow! Things just went batshit crazy. Trying to tell financial people to calm down. Google wasn't making any money in China anyway. And there is no reason to think right now that this will affect anyone else. I REALLY hope people can regain their bearing before tomorrow's trading session. Thank you Google for announcing this after market close! To have announced it during trading would have been horrid. EDIT: BTW It i…

Horrible, but also very exciting!

Re: A new approach to China

#58
post #38

nobody seems to be commenting on the attack part of that post. what was the "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google"? that doesn't sound like just a few end-user gmail accounts being compromised, but something that was much more serious that may have exposed more information than just what these ch…

Maybe it takes a highly sophisticated attach just to get that much out of gmail.

Re: A new approach to China

#59
If Google has concrete evidence to suggest that the Chinese government was behind these attacks, why did they stop just short of saying so?

And if they don't, why would they even consider implying that?

Re: A new approach to China

#60
post #40

This is incredible. This is the first time, I have seen a LARGE company * Putting its users above profits * Stand up to Chinese Government. Since accounts of human rights activists were targeted, this operation was clearly done at the behest of Chinese Government. I'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop. It is time the world stands up to China. If a corporation, whose main aim is to gene…

I have to imagine they have also weighed the business calculus on this. Where they might lose in China for now, will enhance their reputation elsewhere - particularly given how they've come under increased criticism in a wide range of fields. This decision whether intentionally so or in keeping with their stated mission is highly symbolic. Further, don't think this won't help them in China over the long run either. W…

The more right you are, the more significant this is.

Already Google have made a lot of people believe that "Don't be Evil" is a good business strategy. Regardless of the truth of this sentiment, it is to the benefit of society.

The more the slogan is fleshed out and the more evidence accrues that this is indeed good business practice, the more companies will follow.

Post reply on HN