Googling Google

Christopher Dawson, Sam Diaz and Matt Weinberger

Google search blocked in China? The pain continues

By Christopher Dawson | July 30, 2010, 1:05pm PDT

Summary: It’s blocked! No, it’s a glitch! Wait, it’s a little bit blocked! More fun for Google in China.

It’s been a bit of a news rollercoaster for Google the last two days as initial reports showed that Google search was entirely blocked on mainland China, then it was just blocked a little bit and over-reported due to a glitch, then, really for sure, it was an issue with the Great Firewall, as finally reported by ZDNet’s Sam Diaz. As he put it,

Following a closer look at the circumstances, Google has said the problem was not related to a glitch on its part but instead must be the result of some changes to China’s censoring system, called the Great Firewall.

What this really points to is some serious hypersensitivity over Google’s relationship with the Chinese government and their prospects for working unfettered with the largest group of Internet users in the world. The stakes, at least as seen by many investors, are extremely high and the media frenzy over the conflicting reports out of Google and China only reinforce one thing: Anything Google does in China will be fraught with pain.

Being an international business superpower like Google isn’t supposed to be easy. You don’t rake in billions upon billions of dollars by sitting on the beach sipping rum drinks. However, is it a good sign that every time a Chinese Googlers hiccup, Google News is dominated by countless reports of falling skies? Obviously, the answer is no.

I’ve argued before that Google’s stability and enterprise credibility with their core market (western consumers and enterprises) would best served by exiting China until the political climate changes. Obviously, the monetary incentives to stay in China are significant, but one has to wonder how much damage will be done until 2012 when Google’s Chinese operating license expires again. How many more attacks, blockages, media frenzies, and bits of insanity will Google (and its investors and users) endure as it struggles to function autonomously in a market that those same investors largely don’t want it to leave?

I don’t have any real stake in Google except as a user of its consumer and Apps products, including Android. However, I have to wonder what price the company will end up paying to continue its painful operations in China.

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China, Google Inc., Google Search, Cloud Computing, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

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Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

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International trade agreements are established by governments

yet for some reason folks always want to blame corporations. I put it down to 50 plus years of indoctrination that corporations are evil and government is saintly.
frgough
31st Jul 2010
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True, but who lobbies the government for all that special influence?

@frgough - not those of us who lack the financial resources...

The root cause is still the corporations. Government might be complicit, or it might be cheap, or it might be naive, or a combination of those.
HypnoToad72
31st Jul 2010
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Why do they lobby?

@HypnoToad72 B/c the evil government is too friggin' big having too much power to abuse in their hand, which is why they attract so many lobbyists.
LBiege
31st Jul 2010
- Flag
We the duped

@frgough
I put it down to 50 plus years of indoctrination that corporations are evil and government is saintly.

I don't know if anyone even in government fully believes that, at least as simplistically as you put it.

Capitalism run wild is just about as bad as government gone wild. Both prefer to answer only to themselves, and play by their own self imposed, self disposed rules. Everything else can just stand back.

Modern multi-national corporations, many of which are ex-American by makeup, play to global markets, caring little to nothing for the host country from which they sprung. We ''the people'' are just nameless, faceless numbers and statistics, lumped together without distinction with those from abroad.

''Our'' federal government has been flying a one world flag for decades now, increasingly disregarding the very country from which they sprung. We ''the people'' are just nameless, faceless numbers and statistics, lumped together with little distinction with those from abroad. Try Mexico and Israel for but two quick examples.

Hopefully someday you'll come to see it's not one or the other contemporarily, it's both. When taken together, it has all the trappings of an insatiably corrupt, twin headed dragon. And an alien one at that, with agendas that are anything but what ''free enterprise'' and ''democracy'' once stood for in America, the very tenets that helped build this country for this country.
klumper
31st Jul 2010
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When in doubt, blame capitalism

@klumper

If one grocery shop sells oranges at 1$/pound while another does the same oranges at 0.7$/pound, it's perfectly OK for you guys to buy from the 2nd shop w/o caring (not that you should) what it means for employees working for the first shop.

But then all of a sudden if a big corp follows the same reasoning and outsources the jobs to a different place in search for lower cost, tax and so on, then "BANG", it's the evil Big Corporation running evil capitalism that needs to be punished immediately.

Very duped, indeed.
LBiege
31st Jul 2010
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RE: Google search blocked in China? The pain continues

@LBiege that's a horrible analogy. Because while u might not buy oranges from the first shop, it doesn't mean that other people won't. And it doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to lose their jobs over it. But when a company does outsource its jobs then people are directly loosing their jobs.
Jimster480
1st Aug 2010
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LBiege: look below

* Can't edit original post * Error on page *
klumper
31st Jul 2010
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Then why don't they move their princely butts there?

@LBiege
Re: outsourcing jobs to a different place

It's called giving away the store. Scab work is scab work, no matter how you try to rationalize or smear lipstick on it. In the meantime, the capitalist "movers and shakers" at the top reward themselves princely sums for their smug, shortsighted "cleverness," all the while bringing in but more foreigners to serve as their gardeners, nannies and waiters. Don't think for a second the multi-nationals don't support and help fund open borders per their pals in the federal government.

As it is, we thought up and built most tech industries; now "American" companies are giving them away at previously unimagined speed thanks to "globalism" in all its newfangled stripes. When Asia and Marxist Asia [!] get our jobs, you don't just sh*t on white collars, you do so equally to blue collar labor. Eventually innovation itself starts to take place overseas, to include emerging industries. Mark my words.

So instead of investing sensibly in the future by subsidizing higher schooling or vocational training domestically, and taxing offshore-labor products, our industry moguls simply look away as more and more Americans are duped out of work. Those that "invest" in themselves are still left with largely bleak prospects, considering they're stuck holding bags of schooling debt with no guarantees they won't be passed over by foreigners hired on the cheap, most of whom are provided schooling by their governments for little to nothing.

It's a shame you can't see anything alien or shortsighted in these modern one-world practices. Only guns eventually displace butter at the boiling point, as history teaches time and again. You may recall a prime example when American revolutionists had enough of the same at the hands of their English masters and their commercial proxies playing similar games at the outset of this country's inception. It almost happened again during the depression years this century.

Seems to me you're the one being duped, if you buy into these commercial charades that few other nations tolerate (certainly not China!). Or is it you're trying to justify similar practices, at say the SMB level? There the sell-out is almost as rampant, you know, when "princes" get it in their heads they'd rather live and strut like kings.
klumper
31st Jul 2010
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RE: Google search blocked in China? The pain continues

@klumper Thanks for your intelligent reply's I was having a bad day thinking everyone had their heads up their bum, good to see there are people who still see the lager picture.

I'd also like to add that I have nearly 20 years of IT experience and lost my job due to outsourcing or the "scaling" down of my department. I have not been able to get a job as even the lowest pay grade jobs are either full or non-existent. I had to get a job 40 miles away from L.A. and that was entry level work.
ALISON SMOCK
1st Aug 2010
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I'd say prophetic..

@klumper .. but to say your words are "prophetic" implies something that is, for the most part, 'predicted to occur in the distant future'. Trouble is, everything you've pointed out is, sadly, past-tense. You are absolutely, g@rdamn, right!

"...So instead of investing sensibly in the future by subsidizing higher schooling or vocational training domestically, and taxing offshore-labor products, our industry moguls simply look away as more and more Americans are duped out of work. "

You know what i like to call what's happening in the Western world at the moment - and what you've already astutely pointed out: Insourcing (remember, you heard it here first)

OK, wt*? .. you'd rightly ask, but it's really quite simple if you'll bear with me:

In the U.S., U.K., Western European countries, Australia and New Zealand the situation has taken a nasty turn for the worse. Instead of the acknowledged model of "outsourcing" - where big corporates / multinationals send their operations off-shore to: China, South East Asian countries, India, etc, the new world orderlies (as i like to call this group of big corporate, cronies) have gone insidious on us by, instead, bringing the cheap labor into each of the *currently* wealthy, Western countries i've just named.

If you take a step back to just contemplate and think about it, it makes perfect sense for these 'cronies': (1) they save a fortune by avoiding relocation costs to move operations overseas, (2) the "half-a-dozen-peanuts-a-day" work force have their flights paid for, to move to a Western country and (3) all that remains is to slowly and insidiously (-that key word again) weed out domestic / local help. Granted, my way of spelling it out may be a little convoluted .. but you get the general principle - and that's really all that counts. So there it is .. right there .. Insourcing 101.

All told, i really believe the attack upon our way of life is made much worse by what you and i know, but few will ever really care to admit - at least not publicly:

* Insourcing on a huge scale has been gaining momentum for at least the last 5-10 years and i predict will overtake - if not replace - outsourcing.

* Local Workforce Phase Out: We, that is, those born in Western nations will be the first big casualty of insourcing as far as employment goes.

* Nationals deliberately dumbed down: toning-down of traditional, western education standards so that the foreign (i.e. incoming) workforces are (by design) also higher educated and therefore preferred for employment over nationals.

CONCLUSIONS: The irony is, that if insourcing as i've described it *really* takes off than there may just be a wave of returning multinationals bringing operations back to Western shores - but almost certainly for all the wrong reasons.

The time for talking is over .. the time for action is here.
thx-1138_@...
1st Aug 2010
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It's your fault, don't you know that?

@stebidri
I'd also like to add that I have nearly 20 years of IT experience and lost my job due to outsourcing or the "scaling" down of my department.

Any time someone with 20 years of IT experience, or 20 years of welding or mechanical experience, or 20 years of customer service experience, cannot find work - and at scaled "seasoned" rates - something is WRONG. Sadly you're not alone; undercutting practices have been on the increase for years now. I've worked with guys who developed smart weaponry and trajectory systems for the Vietnam-come-Iraqi conflicts who morphed into "overqualified" and/or "antiquated" status once their long term contracts expired. Suddenly they were "dinosaurs" not worthy of retooling, not with cheap scab replacements lined up around the corner.

Sadly, boatload after boatload of H1B mercenaries have never been enough to satisfy the insatiable greed of the industry leadership. Thus they've been quickly supplemented with outsourcing schemes to displace even more native rank-and-filers. All these slick ideas come from Ivy League erudites, whose claim to fame and raison d'etre is to dream up schemes to increase short term profits at the expense of everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - else. That includes longer range projections (bah), principles, ethics, traditions, and of course regulation and oversight whenever and however they can.

They reward these wizards top dollar, basically so you can sit on your thumbs unemployed - and perhaps in foreclosure - while foreigners excel in your place. It's a form of Jonestown Kool-aid by any other name, and trust me, you'll be given quite a guilt trip if you don't drink from their pink cup. That's because modern day captains of industry, do-no-wrong heroes to capitalist purists [!], have been so busy salting loot away in their private vaults that they never bothered to look after or care the very people who helped get them there (other than their handpicked inner circles). Five-and-dime 'expendables' like yourself, along with millions of others, can hit the road.

Don't think it's anything but your own fault, please. You were too devoted and, uh, 'starry eyed' for your own damn good! They'll be the first to tell you so, trust me.

Your hard labor and 20 years of devotion basically bought you OVERPAID, OVERQUALIFIED and OVER-EXPECTANT status. Don't trouble yourself that the same thing applies to those elitist "movers and shakers" at the top of the food chain, only to the power of 100. They're safely sheltered on hilltops and in exclusive enclaves where such rules simply don't apply. But it is interesting - and dare I say, insightful - how they conveniently forgot those at the lower end of the scale who helped get their princely butts into stratospheric climbs. *Alas* these industry princes can't be bothered with any sniveling "gripes" from expatriate labor at this point.

But do take comfort knowing Raj from India and Rahul from Pakistan are doing well in your place. Same thing goes for all the undercut blue collar guys by the score. All should rest easy now that they now have extra time on their hands, and be comforted by the fact that Jose is feeding his kin like never before south of the border, since the Mexicans apparently can no longer fend for themselves! At least their leadership appreciates your "sacrifice," as it allows them to offload their troubles onto our shores and to drape themselves in that much more gold jewelry.
klumper
1st Aug 2010
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RE: Google search blocked in China? The pain continues

@klumper Sadly I hate to say you're right I have been told a few times I'm over qualified for certain positions so i just lie about my experience and get paid less for it as well.

Forgot to mention another problem. If you speak up to those dinos and tell them they are wrong about something when they clearly are you get a nice pink slip or lower pay grade.
ALISON SMOCK
2nd Aug 2010
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RE: Google search blocked in China? The pain continues

Google's China's current predicament is caused, single handed, by its former head, Kaifu Lee. Aside from being a fraud, the guy managed to pull a rug over folks in Mt. View in running the China operation to the ground over a span of 4 years. Meanwhile, using company resources, this fraudster is now dabbling in the Venture Capital world, all the while appearing on cover of Esquire and the likes. What a joke!!!!!
kaifufraudster
1st Aug 2010
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RE: Google search blocked in China? The pain continues

someone should seek comment from the former head of Google China, Kaifu Lee, on how he ruin Google's operation in China in a span of four years!!!
kaifufraudster
1st Aug 2010
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Outsourcing * Insourcing * Aliensourcing

@thx-1138

I agree with everything you've stated. Your eyes and senses are not deceiving you. And yes, it's an outrage. The worst part is, these actions we've been forced to stomach are hardly cyclical or circumstantial as the industry mavens would have you believe. They've become systemic and widespread, and based more on maintaining the insanely disproportionate division of profits these companies reap than anything else. The differential in pay and perks between the top and bottom rungs of most corporations today would make the top execs of the past blush! [Only shhhhh, you're not supposed to know that].

Interestingly, the same cannot be said for most of the heads of enterprise in Europe, where scales of this sort have yet to hit the astronomical levels of greed and audacity that American-come-multi-national execs regularly ensconce (give it time though; this stuff tends to be contagious). Western workers would hardly be clinging to > validity and increasingly insecure futures if these same hot shot executives would only be content with million dollar salaries, as opposed to pilfering companies to the tune of sheik-like aggrandizements.

Naturally they claim they're worth every penny, as they keep plenty of foreign slave labor busy. As it is, they've probably transferred more western work and wealth to Asia - and Communist China - than even the home grown tycoons over there provide their minions. But that's how the latest variant of "trickle down" economics works [disregard any broken pipes overhead]. Our tax dollars help provide an ideal playground for these heads of industry, and they in turn sidestep paying reciprocal tribute in whatever manner they deem fit. Except of course for all the spiffy, foreign-made gadgetry they import to keep the *yet unemployed* bedazzled and amused.

Where they - along with their willing proxies in the federal government - really excel is putting the most qualified, deserving and experienced behind various 8-balls, then lapping one layer after another of socialist, one-world cream to serve as dumbing down potions. You're made to feel guilty that you're not helping to save every needy soul and would-be (and even illegal!) immigrant living outside of the western world, even if it's at your own expense. In the meantime, these corporate wunderkind continue to turn millions into billions - much of which is shoveled into private vaults - while their gallery of believers clap on in metronomic wonder.

But really I should be biting my damn tongue, as it's clearly become unfashionable (a sign of the uncultured mind) to speak bluntly and call a spade a spade anymore. Those in industry AND government who want to remake this country - and yours - into socialist, one-world quicksand remind us at every turn that EVERYBODY stands to win, if we all would disregard the patent realities - and plethora of contradictions - before our not-to-be-trusted eyes. Only you know the bit by now: brace yourself and get in line behind an endless stream of foreigners who *somehow* are granted privileged positions in the line.
klumper
1st Aug 2010
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