Google leaving China?

[Stryfe]

Google to pull out of China soon, reports say

Google has since been negotiating with the Chinese government to find a way to continue operating in the country. Google did not respond today to requests for comment on the state of the negotiations with China.

"I think Google thought China would be flexible," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group.

"As the US government has often found, flexibility isn't something you generally look for in China with regard to Western ideas of what human rights should be. This is China playing hard ball, and it once again would indicate that when you negotiate with a government, you are generally at a massive disadvantage."

Google's continuing stand against China has been met mostly with support from industry watchers, who say it is helping the search giant has overcome the major hit in good will it's taken in recent years by ceding to China's censorship demands.

Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said the latest reported statements on the negotiations probably indicate that there's been a major rift between the two sides.

"I think that the latest reports we're hearing about Google leaving China signal an authentic breakdown in talks rather than typical posturing," Olds said.

"From what I'm seeing, there has been a long-term philosophical conflict at Google ever since they decided to play by the Chinese government's rules on search. I think Google's stand on principal now, is in large part fuelled by their discomfort in agreeing to play the role of censor in the first place. It's goes against their fundamental belief in freedom of information and the social good arising from that," he added.

Besides the fact that I don't agree with censorship, how many people thought China would cede to an organization asking for leniency in reducing censorship of their trademark function, "the best/most internet search results"?

[Specially Cork]

I hate the censorship over here (thankfully I have a VPN), but Google was simply never going to win this fight. Despite all the improvements that foreign investment has brought to China, the nationalists just love to see a big American company fall flat on its face.

The handful of people who here who are well-educated enough about the outside world to understand the censorship issue just use google.com anyway.

[BlackAura]

The handful of people who here who are well-educated enough about the outside world to understand the censorship issue just use google.com anyway.

Assuming the Chinese government don't just block it, or redirect it to Baidu. They've apparently done it before.

[Specially Cork]

It wouldn't shock me. I'm not the sort of person who cares about the "internet is a human right" crap, but I do care about the ignorant people such censorship breeds.