There was a huge media-echo this morning, when Google announced that they are not going to censor their Chinese searchresults anymore. A Google blogposting explained that this noticeable change in direction was triggered by an attack on Google’s infrastructure: GMail-accounts belonging to human-rights activists were broken into. It is obvious that after this announcement, that Google does not have much of a future in China anymore.
Three or four years ago, I could have sworn that their motive was clear: Don’t be Evil. A company like Google would not have been able to operate under these conditions without loosing their identity. Now, my first thought was: this sounds more like an excuse to pull out of China (Google with less than 20% marketshare, Baidu 70% marketshare) while saving face and getting some PR.
