Ballmer must be ecstatic.
Come on. Only Western search engines exist? There's more to it than just Google and Bing. Baidu has 60+% of the Chinese search market.
Make that 90% as of tomorrow.
A new approach to China
191–200 of 392 posts
Re: A new approach to China
#192Wikileaks brings up a good point... "Should be noted that Google keeps secret how many user's records are disclosed to US intelligence, others." Nonetheless, good on Google for taking a stand.
Maybe because those requests are part of a lawful subpoena? I'm sure things would be different if they were busy getting hacked by the CIA and FBI.
lawful? you mean like this: http://www.eff.org/cases/hepting
Re: A new approach to China
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I am so proud of Google right now. I am too, but I think we should remember that China's citizens were and still are being censored, killed, and tortured on a daily basis. Google was fine doing business with them and even assisting in their censorship. Only until Google found itself on the receiving end of China's baton did it finally decide to change their relationship. They deserve kudos and a pat on the back for…
I agree with all of what you've said. The skeptic in me thinks that Google is using this attack as an excuse to offset the PR disaster when Schmidt said the if you have something to hide maybe you shouldn't be doing it speech.
Google is using this attack as an excuse to offset the PR disaster when Schmidt said the if you have something to hide maybe you shouldn't be doing it speech.
That's just insane... do you really think the two are comprable? Google would lose more customers by withdrawing from China than people who know, much less care in the least, about that quote...
Re: A new approach to China
#194Interesting. I wonder how Google would react if the American government did the same thing.
Obviously not the same kind of thing, but here's what happened when the Bush administration got too grabby...
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/060119-060352
(Disclaimer: I work at google)
Re: A new approach to China
#195This 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'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop." Half of the surprise I received reading this article was my shock that the Chinese government would attack profitable companies like Google. Sure, they've always attacked foreign governments, but China's government depends on US companies spending Dollars overseas. Since consumer spending is down in USA, it only seems natural for China to start…
The Chinese government aren't attacking Google. They're merely using Google to attack activists.
No doubt they do that to Chinese companies too, it's just that the Chinese companies will never complain publicly.
Re: A new approach to China
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you say is true. Yet is this move in any way inconsistent with how Google has generally been running its business? To me that is the most remarkable fact in the whole affair.
They were willing to censor results. No more. I would say that is a big change in the way they are willing to run the business. Something about this affair must have stung Google. Either morally (going after human rights activists) or in business (increased risks of attacks and infiltration)
They censored results, yes, but I was always intrigued by the way they did it. In case you never looked into it, they implemented a system similar to what they do in the US with DMCA complaints: remove the offending results, but provide a notice saying that some results were removed.
Which is really a pretty bold step; rather than being a simple invisible removal, it was an in-your-face "your government didn't want you to see the results for this query" approach.
Re: A new approach to China
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I'm disgusted by the levels to which the Chinese Government can stoop." Half of the surprise I received reading this article was my shock that the Chinese government would attack profitable companies like Google. Sure, they've always attacked foreign governments, but China's government depends on US companies spending Dollars overseas. Since consumer spending is down in USA, it only seems natural for China to start…
Google is not very big in China anyway, the Chinese gov't doesn't stand to lose much.
A company like Google saying that it isn't safe to do business in China has to at least annoy them to some degree.
Re: A new approach to China
#198CNBC interview with David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google, who discusses the Internet giant's reaction to an assault by hackers who sought to penetrate the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/12/business/124746651...
Re: A new approach to China
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some background information: GFW research team tried heavily to crack down the SSL certificate for gmail (thus, they can censor the gmail content through GFW).
Hackers ! if you are the true hacker, you should unite and destroy the GFW ! GFW force the 1.6 billion Chinese people to stay outside the gate of information society , GFW is not only the enemy of the Chinese people but also the enemy of all mankind !
I don't think there is anything I could do to make a difference. I guess I can give a few people a free US VPN. Email me if you want access.
Google could bring down the GFW by massively disseminating free VPN access to Chinese people. However, doing so could get Larry and/or Sergey assassinated.
Re: A new approach to China
#200This 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…
How often do you cross-post the exact same comment between HN and reddit? http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/aouv5/new_appro... Edit: I may have jumped to conclusions; the individual on reddit may have very well stolen your comment in which case my accusation is invalid.
the individual on reddit may have very well stolen your comment
I did, thought of it more as a social experiment than theft, though. Apologies to boundlessdreamz, if he cares...