[thelist] tip: use other search engines

[Ian Anderson]

kasimir-k wrote:

> "Google said Tuesday it would launch versions of its search and news Web 
> sites in China that censor material deemed objectionable to authorities 
> there, reasoning that users getting limited access to content was better 
> than none."

Ah, thanks. I do share your concern about censorship and Google, but 
personally I don't think Google are acting improperly.

Automatically censoring the results based on the user's location isn't a 
new practice. There are some very interesting articles (e.g. [1]) going 
back a way about this. For example, Germany has some very strict laws 
about accessing certain sorts of web content, and Google has filtered 
sites in results shown to German users for quite a while now.

I don't see how they could responsibly do anything else; I think they do 
have an obligation to respect the laws of the country in which the 
service is used. My opinion of the regime in this particular instance is 
really beside the point.

I wonder what Chinese web users would prefer - no access to a full 
Google service, or reliable access to a censored one?

Cheers

Ian

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2360351.stm

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