Computerworld - It would be interesting to know how many Google searches were made last week for news about Google searches. Of course, you hardly needed Google to find it. It was everywhere. Even on the other side of the planet.
When the news broke that Google is launching a search service in China that will block any results the Chinese government deems unsuitable for its citizens, the outrage seethed on countless Web sites, including our own. "Boycott Google Now" screams the headline of an opinion piece by Dan Verton, a former Computerworld security reporter and a well-known author on security matters. True, Google is only doing what Microsoft and Yahoo have long done in China, Verton acknowledges. But, he says, Google deserves to be singled out because it's the "one company that could have made a difference in the lives of 100 million Chinese citizens by standing up and speaking out against online repression." Instead, it has "solidified the position of U.S. online search giants as firewalls to freedom."
Many in the U.S. will cheer that rhetoric, completely oblivious to its tragic shortsightedness. They'll echo the outcry without recognizing that we simply can't be content with changing the lives of the 100 million Chinese who have the incalculable good fortune of gaining access to the Internet. They'll be incapable of appreciating the fact that we need to change the lives of 1.3 billion Chinese. And the best way to make that happen is to engage China and to expose the Chinese people to whatever positive Western influences we possibly can. We don't need to agree with that nation's government to abide by its laws, any more than we need to agree with our own government to obey it.
And that's where last week's Google news gets disturbing. In defending the company's decision to launch the censored service in China, Andrew McLaughlin, Google's senior policy counsel, made this statement: "While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information -- or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information -- is more inconsistent with our mission."
However, Google's problem with inconsistency certainly isn't evidenced by its responses to search-data positions taken by the Chinese and U.S. governments. Whereas Google has acknowledged the Chinese government's right to block search results, it refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the U.S. government's subpoena for information about search results. That refusal has unleashed yet more outrage, this time over suspicions that the government is out to identify Internet users searching for porn.
Last month I blogged about the partnerships you should build inside your organization. In keeping with that tone it's time we discussed expanding that partnership mentality to include some of the best technical resources you can ever get hold of, those are the ones that work in your neighboring cities, municipalities, counties, regions, townships etc. Come on folks, these people are already doing exactly the same things as you!
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