6 replies to this topic

[Ruud]

Cyberwar: China Declares War On Western Search Sites

[...] new reports have surfaced that would indicate that China has unilaterally blocked all three major search engines in China and is redirecting all requests to Baidu.

Listing some things the players had to do to "get into" the Chinese market (self-censor, help political opponents to get convicted) I wonder:

So… was it worth it? [...] how far further will these companies have to go now to get favorable treatment?

What puzzles is me is that both Yahoo and Google (I didn't follow Microsoft in this area) chance so much good PR against bad PR in return for ... nothing. Google self-censors in China but has no hard guarantees that it will receive anything in return. Likewise Yahoo who, under the guise of being a law abiding company, sold out its "soul": there is no guarantee it will get them anything.

Was or is there the hope that being sweet to the Chinese government would get them favorable treatment or at least let them play the game? If not hope, were there hints, verbal promises?

In either of those two (hope, promises), how can you build on a good-faith situation with a government which demonstrates it doesn't have such a thing?

Also, does China shoot itself in the foot with its behavior? Are they by their actions today doing more to change Google/Yahoo's company policies than disgruntled voices here can ever do?

This is a darn interesting development.

[Respree]

Its a whole different world over there. I've decided I won't be moving to China anytime soon.

[Autocrat]

(All total and utter conjecture and personal views! There is nothing substantiated, documented or in any way knowingly factual in this post!!!)


It seems that Chna does things well over the 100% margin.

Just look at their interaction with businesses/countries in the past 50 Years... there are no real "half-measures", it seems and all or nothing kind of place - if you make it there, you should make it anywhere.

The issue shouldn't solely to do with China though... if they are capable and willing, what about certain other coutries and parts of the world... is the internet to be involved in the "real world"... are we to start seeing "virtual" boundries slapped up everywhere?

I'm afraid I could see this going what I deem a very dark path.... if they are willing to prevent the engines... there is nothing to stop them from blocking other things... imagine certain countries/domains not being able to send emails to them?

Maybethe virtual world is much more "real" than some of the real world likes to admit.


(All total and utter conjecture and personal views! There is nothing substantiated, documented or in any way knowingly factual in this post!!!)

[yannis]

Am I missing something? google china

[bwelford]

I was interested to read an item on Vint Cerf re Internet preparing to go into outer space

This includes the following data:

One of the outstanding changes was the Internet's huge growth in Asia which now boasts 436 million users, well above the figures of 321 million in Europe and 233 million in North America, the birthplace of the web, he said.

"That there are so many users in Asia suggests the content of the Internet will eventually contain far more information in languages other than English than it does today," he added.

Interesting thoughts.

[Ruud]

yannis, the censoring is likely to work only from within China.

There are some reports coming in of people apparently not seeing this in China but Danny Sullivan meanwhile has received confirmation from Google:

We've had numerous reports that Google.cn and other search engines have been blocked in China and traffic redirected to other sites. While this is clearly unfortunate, we've seen this happen before and are confident that service will be restored to our users in the very near future.

[yannis]

Thanks Ruud!

Yannis