Google censorship tools

I'll have to take your word for it, but I'm not so sure that's true. (It very well could be though.)

Judging by this article, it seems it may have seen the light of day:

"It’s strange, but it sounds like it works and people might really like it."

http://techcrunch.com/2006/06/08/goo...xtual-content/

I can't say if that is based on actual people that have used it or pure speculation.

People here thought it was so foul that it was an April Fools' joke:

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?.../09/03/2148216

I dunno, to me, just the thought of them thinking of ever doing this is enough to say they're foul.

If Google doesn't censor, which I don't have any proof of, either for or against, then why do we have the option to download opt-out software to protect ourselves from them? There has to be something to it, I seriously doubt that Google is doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

While it's indeed voluntary to install the opt-out software, I sure that Google was pushed into offering it to us by some authority. And while Google may not be 100% guilty of the accusations made against them, they're not 100% innocent, either. They have done everything in their power to monopolize the search engine industry, going as far as sticking their noses in MS's affairs, when they were attempting to acquire Yahoo.

But they failed, and in the end, MS got what they wanted for free, their search engine into Yahoo. And Google made themselves another enemy by sticking their noses where it didn't belong.

And then there's the issue of Google leaving China, the growth capital of the world. Why would any corporation simply walk away from there? Truth probably was, Google didn't want to follow the law of the land that they do business in. While I don't like the fact that many of our jobs went there, if I were an investor, I'd follow the growth, wherever it took me.

Google has made their own bed, now they must lay in it, for better or worse.

Cat

Since the NSA helped fund some of Google's early days I stay away from it.

I think you're confusing Google for the DOJ, who hammered the Yahoo/MS detail on anti-trust issues. Furthermore, what strong-arming Google did attempt with the deal was little more than a life raft for Jerry Yang, founder and ex-CEO of Yahoo!, who was desperate to fend off Microsoft. So desperate, actually, that Yang turned down an offer that was 25% higher than the company was worth.

Microsoft did not get that for free. It was a very, very expensive deal.

You're arguing in favor of privacy out of one hand, then lambasting Google for pulling out of China in another. Do you know why Google left the PRC? Because China requested Google keep tabs on and supply data for every Chinese user that accessed the search engine. Data that can be used to arrest Chinese citizens as enemies of the state, dissidents and other baseless accusations.

You can't have it both ways. You're either in favor of privacy, or you're in favor of Google providing every little detail about its users to the Chinese just so they can stay in China and make money.

If you read my source Google has not left China, they just renewed, but they are worried about the censorship issue.

"Google is keen to reassert its freedom of expression credentials after a very public spat with the Chinese government over censorship. It threatened to pull the plug on services when it emerged that the authorities had been spying on some Gmail accounts.
It began re-routing traffic via Hong Kong but in June agreed to tweak the system to placate the Chinese government.
In July its license to do business in China was renewed."