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News & ArtsTuesday, January 12, 2010
Teh Internets Good Move, Google
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 3:32 PM
I was feeling pretty bad about Google after this Nexus One thing, which is looking more and more like a debacle. I'm enjoying Google Chrome for Mac, but there are very obvious problems—no ability to manage bookmarks being the most glaring—that seem like amateur hour, especially considering the year lag between the PC Chrome launch and the Mac launch.
So it's good to see Google doing something right; the company just announced that they are reconsidering their approach to China.
We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that "we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China."These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered—combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web—have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
You should read the whole post on Google's Official Blog. It's good to see the company finally taking a stand against censorship in China; better four years late than never.
2
Phones and Web just don't work.
It's the same problem as PDAs. Not really useable.
iPhone? 99 percent were bought by people with too much money as status symbols. I rarely see anyone on the Sounder using them.
HOWEVER -- what people do use are small laptops and netbooks. Couple with Clear Wimax Mobile there is a huge market for them still. The problem is Windows 7 makes them too expensive and the hardware too power hungry.
Good news: MSI is releasing a netbook with openSuse Moblin!
Phones and Web just don't work.
It's the same problem as PDAs. Not really useable.
iPhone? 99 percent were bought by people with too much money as status symbols. I rarely see anyone on the Sounder using them.
HOWEVER -- what people do use are small laptops and netbooks. Couple with Clear Wimax Mobile there is a huge market for them still. The problem is Windows 7 makes them too expensive and the hardware too power hungry.
Good news: MSI is releasing a netbook with openSuse Moblin!
5
@ 3 - It's "Hear, hear."
And generally - 4 years isn't that late compared with some governments, is it?
And generally - 4 years isn't that late compared with some governments, is it?
6
I'm pretty sure Google Chrome hasn't "launched" for any OS. I guess it is kind of Google's own fault for blurring the lines of the product cycle with their projects always being in "beta", but even I thought it was a good idea to open Chrome up as open source and let the community work on it in early stages. Alas, this is a consumer world where we want the best, even if it's free, even if it's not completed.
7
Managing bookmarks in Chrome is a breeze, Paul. If you want to add a page to your bookmarks, you just click the red star to the left of the address bar, then click the blue arrow to the right of the folder bar, which brings up a drop-down menu of your bookmark folders. If you don't see the one you want on the list, you just scroll down to "Choose Another Folder", which brings up the complete directory tree. Left click once on the folder or subfolder you want, then click "Okay", or click "New Folder" to create another one, and drop it in there.
If you want to search for a bookmark, you just click the red wrench to the right of the address bar, then click "Bookmark Manager", and you're back in your directory.
If you want to search for a bookmark, you just click the red wrench to the right of the address bar, then click "Bookmark Manager", and you're back in your directory.
8
@7, he was referring to the MacOS version of Chrome. There is no bookmark management window in the Mac version yet, though clicking on the star does work to modify the bookmark of the page you're on.
Paul, you can download the latest Chromium beta so you can at least see your bookmarks in something other than that dropdown menu (you still can't edit them there like you can in Windows).
This is painfully awkward, but if you really want to edit your search shortcuts, you can do so by downloading SQLite Database Browser, closing Chrome, opening ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Web Data with the database browser, and picking the "keywords" table. (If you use Chromium, the file is in "Chromium" instead of "Google/Chrome").
Paul, you can download the latest Chromium beta so you can at least see your bookmarks in something other than that dropdown menu (you still can't edit them there like you can in Windows).
This is painfully awkward, but if you really want to edit your search shortcuts, you can do so by downloading SQLite Database Browser, closing Chrome, opening ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Web Data with the database browser, and picking the "keywords" table. (If you use Chromium, the file is in "Chromium" instead of "Google/Chrome").
9
I'm not sure it's entirely a matter of principle. No one in China uses google-- everyone just uses Baidu. So pulling out of China would not a huge sacrifice.
10
Ah, you crack me up. Only an iPhone douche would call the Nexus One a debacle. Keep on w/ the smug, my good man.
11
Leaving China is a massive error, essentially ceding a billion (more?) customers to whatever 2nd-rate search engine/software service steps in, gleefully cooperating with a censorious government. Cue Steve Ballmer and Bing...
12
Apparently Google China now lets anyone who can read chinese to look up Tank Man and the Tienanmen Square riot/massacre.
So before they pull out, they're giving the government the Hawaiian Good Luck Sign.
So before they pull out, they're giving the government the Hawaiian Good Luck Sign.
13
@9: Baidu is the leader to be sure, but Google is a strong second.
The quality of Baidu's search and advertising systems is pretty lame compared to Google. Users' old habits die hard, but eventually Google would have won. Baidu's stock did have a nice jump in the after-hours. I guess the Google news trumped the fact that Baidu was hacked by the "Iranian Cyber Army".
The quality of Baidu's search and advertising systems is pretty lame compared to Google. Users' old habits die hard, but eventually Google would have won. Baidu's stock did have a nice jump in the after-hours. I guess the Google news trumped the fact that Baidu was hacked by the "Iranian Cyber Army".
14
Oh, Macs yeah, those. What is Apple up to these days market share-wise? Have they managed to crack 10% yet?
15
HOLY SHIT. Sweet. I'm surprised they put up with China's stupid censorship for so long in the first place.
I mean, especially when China's censorship is so so ineffective anyway.
I mean, especially when China's censorship is so so ineffective anyway.
17
Google should have never censored in China in the first place. What is even worse, they gave the names of dissidents who "misused the internet" ie, attempted Freedom of Speech leading tot their harsh punishment. Considering that Google's motto is "Don't be Evil" I cannot understand how they can justify EVER trampling upon basic human rights.
18
Well since M$ has no ethics or conscience, expect to see a Chinese language version of Bing if its not already there.
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