Google censors in China

Google has created a storm of criticism with the launch of its new Chinese Google search engine - because it automatically censors results for the Chinese authorities.

Censorship of information services is inevitable when doing business in China - Yahoo! and Microsoft have already launched search projects there that already do this.

However, Google’s motto of “Don’t do evil” has presented the image of a company with a sense of ethics.

That now presents something of a public relations problem, as not doing evil must be reconciled with tapping into lucrative business markets - even where ethical considerations are acute.

The number of internet search users in China is predicted to increase from about 100 million currently to 187 million in two years’ time - and therefore presents a consumer market that major US companies are keen to tap into directly.