Google Squares off with China

China 4, Google 2, with only a few minutes left in the third period. Google is thinking about pulling the goalie. If that happens, China is sending the Hankow Goon over the boards.

I Googled "China" in Google Maps the other day and found out that the Royal Doulton corporate Headquarters is in the Lambeth Burrough of London, England.

Hearing a lot about this on NPR over the past few weeks. I don't think Google acted quickly enough to make a difference. As much clout that China has over the world market, I think they could care less about Google packing up and going home. I don't think China's going to change its censorship policies anytime soon because one company disagreed with them and acted on it. Some folks hope that this will be the beginning of what they hope are a series of larger companies that would threaten to pull out of China, and they hope China will bow to the "pressure" and loosen its censorship issues. But, China's pretty stubborn, and on top of that I don't think there'll be enough large corporations that would be willing to stand up to China. With the fastest growing economy in the world, not a lot of companies are going to be willing to lose that kind of market share. Kudos to Google for standing up for (what I think are) its core beliefs, though.

This is one of the few incredible GOOD examples that someone is not willing anymore to support (in any way) censorship in China. This is even more significant when we see that it's a giant company like Google. They also gave a clear hint that they refuse to support the invasion of the individual's privacy (you'd be surprised how many companies break their employees' and clients' rights for privacy - in any given form). And this is all made at the expense of shutting down a huge market for them. So this might have significant economic repercussions to their company, but they are willing to deal with them. So what does this say about politicians all over the world?! Some might put this event in brackets and state that is not important, but FREEDOM (in any form) will always be significant, and what Google does is a great action. * * Google hit a brick wall with the Chinese Government but they didn't back down from their principles. Amasing (but not unexpected), one of the few lil' wonders... Read more

Update 3: Google flipped the switch. As of this morning, Google Search, Google News, and Google Images results in china are no longer censored. They are redirecting visitors to google.cn through their Hong Kong servers at google.com.hk. From their blog post, negotiations with the Chinese government have gone nowhere, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html Here's a site that will provide information on what services are available in China on a daily basis: http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en Update 2: Looks like you can get a degree in cyber-terrorism over there: Two Chinese schools said to be linked to online attacks on Google & other American companies Update 1 posted: 1.15.2010 Looks like the reason the State Department has gotten involved is because they may have evidence that Chinese government authorities assisted in the original code attack that attempted to gain access to human ri... Read more

This event is flying under the radar pretty much right now, but I think it could be an important foreshadowing of future events. Technology is an intricate part of future economic and basic life, that much we do know. Now, who has the ability to control the technology of communication could be a key factor in many different ways. The fact that Google got pwned by Chinese hackers is not good. I have a friend who in his younger days (not me I swear lol, I am just ok with technology, not great) was quite the little hacker wanna-be. Now he gets government and corporate contract work to protect information, dig-out information on computers, etc. etc. He says of the international community, he generally has no problems handling hackers from any country except China. I am not sure how we address this issue, but like I said, I think it could be important for future events.

Good for Google ! I say more power to 'em. THATS the way to "fight for freedom".Let the Chinese people make up their OWN minds.

Who are these Google Squares? And where with China are they off to?

China versus (anything ever) CS's money is on China. . .

It seems that google is a very inclusive company and for them to cut out China would be a pretty big deal. My problem is that our heavy reliance on China and us putting them on a pedestal in the Olympics is pretty lame.

Google better be careful, China probably owns the banks Google deals with, the land Google offices are on, and the American dollar that Google trades in. Can you say Gift Horse?

The coordinated attacks against at least 34 other businesses in the financial, chemical, and other industries that Google mentioned in their blog post on this subject seem like the real, larger story -- much more significant than gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents. Google implied that these attacks were the work of the Chinese government. This seems like more than a mere security breach. It wouldn't surprise me if Google in Shanghai was itself compromised by PRC, perhaps from the inside. The public story seems to make this about what results come up when you search for "Dalai Lama" in China. Given the sabre-rattling going on, I'd bet that is almost certainly not what this is about.

This attack on Google's Chinese operations is almost certainly state-sponsored, or are at least tolerated by the central government. These human rights activists certainly are not friendly with the regime and China does not have a strong history in upholding civil liberties. Some months ago, I had an interesting conversation with a friend who writes security software and spam filtering codes as an independent consultant. He told me that a number of attacks were being fomented in both China and Russia (both coincidentally enough, America's main geopolitical competitors). These attacks are very sophisticated in nature; this isn't the "script kiddie" stuff that we see on a daily basis. They are targeted attacks on specific people and organizations, especially those who are classified as "sensitive", including government organizations. His recommendation to clients: place a bar on most websites with an IP address originating in China. The result was a 90-95% reduction in malicio... Read more

By now you've likely seen the news which has plastered almost every technology site and news site on the 'net. After reports that Chinese human rights activists Gmail accounts had been hacked Google are now reconsidering their position in China, and whether to go on serving results but in an unfiltered state, or to pull out entirely. Google have reported that information from at least two accounts have been accessed, but not the contents of the emails. sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China Although their allegations are not aimed directly at the Chinese government and their practices, it is implied that they believe the government was involved. Due to seriousness of such allegations this has meant further involvement from US officials in order to get answers to the serious questions that these actions pose. Once the news was announced Google's shares dropped by 1.1% which means no matter what they decide to do it has already cos... Read more

This is a big story in the tech world right now. Google is threatening to pull out of China if they are unable to present non censored search results. This in response to a cyber attack against Google which may have come from the Chinese government. It's a fascinating story, but we'll have to wait a little longer to see how things play out to see just how significant this story is.

Are you asking me to predict a winner?...

What's the subtext? Ooooooo, governments, authoritarian in nature, want control. This is not news. When the internet empowers people then the government needs to intensify control; but chances are pretty good that in the end this is a money decision and not a human rights stand. Don't expect a compromise from the Chinese government.