Saturday, January 28, 2006

Google and China


Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people and infrastructure within China, we intend to change that.

No, we're not going to offer some Google products, such as Gmail or Blogger, on Google.cn until we're comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users' interests in the privacy of their personal communications. And yes, Chinese regulations will require us to remove some sensitive information from our search results. When we do so, we'll disclose this to users, just as we already do in those rare instances where we alter results in order to comply with local laws in France, Germany and the U.S.

From the official Google blog.

Update: There is more info over at Brad DeLong's blog: here and here. In particular, don't miss this comment by the Shanghaiist.

2 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Ah Yes. Read that article yesterday on Google Blog. Google is right in doing what they are doing, taking one step at a time, consciously trying their best to eventually provide all their services at the level of quality they originally created.

  2. Abi said...

    TE: thanks for your comment. You might also be interested in the update I have posted.