Don't Be Good Google's corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil". Today, Google has announced the name of the Chinese version of their site: ‘Gu Ge’ or ‘Valley Song’. In doing business in China, Google has also agreed to censor their results. This means that Google is actually modifying their results based upon the policies of a Communist government. The report goes on to say:

Talking to reporters later, Schmidt said Google's managers were stung by criticism that they accepted Chinese censorship, but said they haven't lobbied Beijing to change its rules.

"I think it's arrogant for us to walk into a country where we are just beginning to operate and tell that country how to operate," he said.

Asked whether Google might try to persuade Beijing to change its restrictions, Schmidt said he didn't rule anything out, but said it hasn't tried to change such limits elsewhere. He noted that Google's site in Germany is barred from linking to Nazi-oriented material.

"There are many cases where certain information is not available due to local law or local custom," he said.

This sounds good, but it doesn't hold up when applied universally. If a Islamist government asked them to filter out everything offensive to Islam, would they do that as well? We've always trusted Google to show us what is truly out there, now it appears that at least some of us (the Chinese) cannot.

It appears that "Don't Be Evil" works great until you are faced with a question of profits. What a powerful statement it would have been for Google to refuse to agree to China's policies. More analysis hereand here.  ¶ 6:54 AM 0 comments