I’m quoted in today’s San Jose Mercury News in an article about the new Google China blog: “Google launches China blog a day before China hearing.” The reporter, Elise Ackerman, has just been assigned full-time to “Google” as a beat which she was really excited about. She phoned me late yesterday for an interview. Could hear her madly typing as we spoke, as she was on deadline. The story got a “weird edit” at the last minute, Elise said in an email this morning.
As in a, um, run-on sentence:
“Debbie Weil, author of the forthcoming “The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right,” said the idea [of the blog] was sound, but did not bring up the questions Google faced about its dealings with China overshadowed what would otherwise be a chirpy corporate branding effort.
[Update: the run-on has been fixed.]
The point of the article is the rather odd timing of the launch of Google’s chirpy China blog one day before the contentious hearings in the House this week.
BTW, I agreed with Joe Nocera’s provocative column in yesterday’s New York Times about the hearings: Enough Shame to Go Around on China. His point…
Most people can’t read between the lines on this issue. The truth is
much more simple. The U.S. government wants control of the internet.
That means they need to get control and leverage over big search engines.
How do you get control of search engines that are abiding by U.S. law.
Simple, draft laws that they are not abiding by. Currently Sen.
Christopher Smith (R-NJ) is drafting legislation that will put search
engines in hot water. This is all orchestrated so that the government
can get leverage over the search industry.
Let’s also get one thing straight. Since when has the government cared
what U.S. companies are doing in China? And why just Google, Yahoo, and
Microsoft search? There are dozens of Fortune 500 companies that have
been conforming to Chinese regulations for years. What about them?
Conclusion: Google and other search engines will lose this fight and
evenutually be forced to hand over key information about how they
operate. Once the government has reverse engineered search ranking
algorithims, they will be able to manipulate search results at their
pleasure. People will then see the results that the U.S. government
wants them to see.
Welcome to the new world order that is controled so that people never
know the truth.
Don’t believe me? Read all about it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm
Comment by dan — February 19, 2006 @ 12:05 pm
Very informative,Thanks.-Graphic Designer burtonlancaster.com
Comment by Burt — February 21, 2006 @ 11:38 pm