google.cn

I usually feel guilty about making Google-related posts, especially at a time when they release such great things as the Nexus One, Near-Me-Now, and a feature of GoogleDocs now lets you upload any type of file for storage (the elusive "G-Drive"). But somehow, this post seems different.

Yesterday, Google made a post about their China branch

1. Four years ago, Google decided that the benefits of having "increased access to information for people in China ... outweighed [Google's] discomfort in agreeing to censor some results". To abide by laws, certain search results on google.cn are filtered.
   (For example, looking up an image of the "tiananmen-square tank man" in Canada vs. China yields very different results.)
2. Last month, Google (among "at least twenty other large companies") faced a particularly strong "cyber attack", which they have reported was likely to gain access to the email accounts of human rights activists.
3. Yesterday, Google concluded its post with this option for the Chinese government:
   
   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.

I absolutely love that conclusion, and I look forward to seeing how this plays out.

I can only imagine flawlessly.

I do wonder though... What brought them to these options?

• Helping China within their own legal system is more trouble then it's worth. (Especially if some part of the PRC government is not.)
• Google is a major part of many peoples lives. Perhaps the PRC will submit to having an unfiltered search giant?
• The cyber attack might not have been possible without Google's presence in China. Perhaps the best way to "don't be evil" is getting out.

I have no idea, but I'm glad that some action is being taken.

Comments and insights would be much appreciated.