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Report: Google Will Return To China
An anonymous reader writes: Google famously withdrew from mainland China in 2010 after fending off a series of cyberattacks from local sources. Now, according to a (paywalled) report from The Information, the company is working on plans to return. "As part of the deal Google is looking to strike, Google would follow the country's laws and block apps that the government objects to, one person told The Information." They're also seeking approval for a Chinese version of Google Play.
So I guess we can say google is Folding@Home?
Seriously though the blockade should stand.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
I guess it's too much to expect any company, even the "do no evil" one, to stand up for principle when there's so much money at stake.
They might get sunk--by a Confederate submarine. BOOM! Glug, glug, glug.
Google also announced that they were taking their new time machine back a few years to get into the German market, promising Mr. Hitler that they would block any Jewish-related content.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Who is going to turn down that money? Please! Their little stunt made them look like idiots. Look, business is business, it's not a big stretch to *Orders are orders*..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
But it's a fundamental property of corporations that they cannot have a heart. It doesn't matter how moral its founders or leadership were, economic realities dictate that a company must break every rule it can. If it does anything different due to moral concerns, it will have by definition deviated from the economically optimal course of action. Keep that up and it will be out-competed or swallowed by the competition.
Google is simply ensuring that they don't find themselves without a footing in both nations should WWIII ignite. That's at least what they are telling the Chinese...
To what extent they are loyal to the White House/State Dept./DoJ/DoD is a subject for Julian Assange to report on, but regardless of the presentation: I suspect they are playing both sides for the profit of their shareholders.
It would be foolish to call this is a vote of "no confidence" in the future of the United States. This is a vote of "no confidence" in taking sides at all.
Watch the news in the coming months and expect the Chinese to play the US electorate like a fiddle while Chickenhawks promise to flex their muscles by borrowing money from the Chinese. "Strong on defense"? The trade deficit is a matter of national security.
They're gonna be all up in our Blue Water rustlin' our jimmies.
Boy, oh boy: are some sabers gonna be rattled!
1...2...3...Existential Crisis: Not It!
Have you ever known an American company to walk away and leave a dollar on the table? It is painfull for them all their money in somebody elses pocket.
old Vulcan paraphrase
if the Chinese won't allow free internet access, Google should not be there.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Google turning their back on China didn't do much except cost them huge market share (Apple has been doing very well there). Because of all the blocks, an Android phone is almost a brick in China. Maybe they'll even fix Google maps there.
Unfortunately the ship has sailed for Google. The App store model relies on a monopoly on the phones. China is a country where everyone has an Android phone and none of them come with the Play Store. Instead there are many alternate stores catering specifically to the Chinese market with Chinese apps. Why would you want an app store to enter the market which no one can understand?
don't be evil, be greedy.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Google caved in europe based on laws and reasons passed there, even if not accepted in other places. China has its reasoning for censorship, even if not accepted in most other places.
If Google disagreed with the reasoning for both, how are they supposed to act?
Now tell me the bit about kowtowing to the evil again ...
When Google exited China it was doing all the grandstanding it could - trumpeting how they refuse to 'work with the devil'
Not long after that Google was exposed to be cooperating with the NSA - and this time, it was spying on the Americans, for NSA
It could be said that Google's returning to China might be on the behest of the NSA --- to spy on the Chinese
Time to update to Google's new, super sleek san serif logo.
Not content with decimating the US workforce in the current era, IBM would then use their own guest workers to develop and market a Hollerith machine.
I've been living in China for 3 years now (close to Shanghai in Jaingsu province).
I try to spread the word about VPN's to friends here. I've offered to help them get prepaid credit cards to pay anonymously to western service providers.
They don't care. They don't see any value in it. They don't care about Google, Facebook, YouTube because they have their own stuff which is better for them.
They know their news sources lie and that's bjust how it is. I know one Chinese guy (one) that uses a western VPN (Astrill).
I use StrongVPN. It's not a great provider for privacy, ect but I've had a good experience. PPTP seems to work best if you change the host every so often. I assume because it's weak and they can get into it if you want.
OpenVPN just doesn't work. L2TP doesn't work well at home (China Telecom) or on my mobile (China Unicom) but works great on my phone when using my employers wifi.
I assume L2TP is functional there because we're a tax paying business and we need a VPN to bridge our LAN's so they choose not to mess with it.
If they didn't have stupid negotiators like our politicians, google woulden't be crawling back now.
I mean, this kind of PR event is meaningless after PRISM.