Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Google launches Chinese site and creates an uproar!

Google today launched a new Chinese search site at Google.cn. In doing so they have set up a censored Chinese version of its website which will block results in order to avoid angering the country’s Communist government. The site will not provide Gmail, Blogger or other services that will open up its use to unfettered expression.

And the announcement of this new, filtered and handcuffed Google site has led to uproar. For the media and the blogging community have stood up in arms and denounced Google for giving in to the Chinese authorities. It seems as though what is acceptable for Microsoft and Yahoo to do is not for Google.

But there are two major take-aways from todays unfortunate announcement from Google. One is that the company is growing up into a global corporate much faster than anyone anticipated (Google founders included) and the second is the extraordinary power that they (through Blogger) and others have unleashed via blogging technology.

Problem number (Google becoming a corporate) should perhaps not surprise us too much for at one point they had to. You can't be worth more than IBM and not behave a little like them. And the reality is that Google are now a public company and have to play by the rules of shareholder returns, however we may all dislike that at times. The Chinese market is just too big and any company ignores it at its peril. Playing by their rules is an unfortunate side to succeeding in the massive Asian market.

Perhaps the Google founders were a little naive when they announced their corporate values that they now seem to be eschewing in the name of profit. But, Google is no longer their company, it now belongs to countless demanding institutions and individuals, many of whom do not have the same values as either the Google founders (or at least the values they published as they went public) or the media/bloggers.

But perhaps the even more startling takeaway is the power of the blogging community, for the Financial Times piece announcing Google's new site refers more to the blogging communities response than to the actual announcement itself. And its all over the FT.com home page.

What the FT quoting bloggers more than their own writers or tech analysts or Google or other sources? If the venerable FT has so bowed to blogger opinion (as they should), then today's announcement about Google says more about the latest form of free speech (yep, blogging) than it does about Google's supposed malfaisance with the Chinese.

Maybe that should be the real take home here and possibly even a small line of defence for Google, who pioneered blogging technology with the acquisition of Blogger.com. So, shame for the Chinese and even shame for how Google have to play their game, but what a great day for free speech and for bloggers.

No comments: