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Google faces the Great Wall of China.

January 26, 2006

Google that prides itself as the most advanced search engine, with unparalleled revenue and a workforce comprising of the most talented software geeks, is up against a big hurdle in Confucius' China . Google's decision to put a ceiling on certain sites could prove to be its Achilles' heel in this economic powerhouse of Asia .

The top executives of the company defended its stand to go by the dictates of the ruling Communist Party of China, stating that the move would provide information beneficial to the Chinese users. However users say that even the search for the word “ Tiananmen Square ” infamous for the bloodshed of Chinese students could yield no result in google search. Chinese users are directed from www.google.com to www.googlecn.com, where they can view only filtered information.

The strategy of Google to comply with the repressing and authoritarian policy of the Chinese government is criticized from many business and political circles. The company will sift out any news that doesn't go in tune to the whims of the Chinese monitoring authority. Many humor, religious, gay, lesbian, alcohol and news sites have been debarred access. It is interesting that some of these constrained sites are given entrée in the yahoo and Microsoft search engines in the country.

Google may be trying to act Roman, where Rome is. But many professionals concur with the idea that the prominent search engine is heading for an uphill task ahead, as the Chinese users would be getting a restricted diet of information, sterilized by the authority. It would be Google's undoing in its future business expansion plan to dominate the Chinese cyberspace.

Source: CNET News.com