bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Thursday, January 26, 2006 ::

From hero to villian in a single week
Now that Google is building a search engine the great firewall of China that filters out information that China's government disapproves of, its public image has changed seemingly overnight. The company has gone from "all-conquering hero to bad-ass villain." So says Paul Hales in this piece published in the online publication The Inquirer.
Last week, the company founded on a single search algorithm was being lauded for standing up against the US administration’s Big Brother-style thirst for information on its own citizens. The only people then concerned that Google was refusing to open up its databanks to Government snoops were the shareholders, worried the impact of such a move may have on the fatness of their wallets.

This week, Google’s in the dock for daring to allow the authorities in China to control what can be seen on Google’s search pages from the within the People’s Republic. In standing up to the US (hurrah!) while kowtowing to the Chinese (boo!) Google has put itself in the glare of the media spotlight for all the wrong reasons. From here on it, can only get worse.
Hales predicts a bleak future for Google. "It’s done a Microsoft and outgrown its boots and begun to alienate its users. Unfortnately for it, the only way is down. Still, it likely has collected more data on individual web users than the CIA."

Google, China, censorship

:: Andrew 07:05 + ::
...

from our sponsors

bloggedy blog

About

Syndicate

music to my ears

bookish blogs

media & politics

pop culture

emerging churchies

jambalaya

my writings

bloggedy blog recommends

In rotation

bloggedy tags

from our sponsors

for your viewing pleasure

where in the world?