Monday, January 25, 2010

Bill Gates on Google in China

I love some of the comments on the whole Google vs China standoff. Actually can you even call it a standoff? As Bill quite rightly points out, Google have yet to actually do anything. So they've said a lot, taken a moral stand... and, haven't actually followed anything through. Hey, way to go Google! Or not!

Bill Gates doesn’t get the fuss everyone’s making over Google’s recent threat to stop censoring search results in China.

“They’ve done nothing and gotten a lot of credit for it,” Gates said Monday during a visit at The New York Times.

“What point are they making?” Mr. Gates asked. “Now, if Google ever chooses to pull out of the United States, then I’d give them credit.”

Gates’ comments come just days after current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was also critical of Google’s stance. Both Gates and Ballmer pointed out that many countries have questionable laws and policies.

Lest Sergey Brin and Larry Page are losing sleep over these verbal jabs, let’s point out that Gates also defended Google when asked if he considered them a monopoly: “I wouldn’t call anyone a monopolist.”
(searchengineland.com)

Really I'm just waiting for Google to actually pull out of China, they won't because they're still making money. Will they un-censor their results? Nope because then China will simply block them anyhow. Lets face it, while Google may have an economy that many countries just couldn't refuse, China aren't really that concerned. Well that's just my $0.02.