baidu Posts

May192011

Posted By
Ryan

Chinese search giant Baidu in some US legal (bai)doo-doo

This is clever.

So a few years ago Google enters China and is put under a global grilling lamp on whether or not it will adhere to local laws regarding censorship and its search results. Don’t Be Evil held for a little while, but 300+ million Chinese Internet users was bound to make anyone check their morals at the gate eventually. But then, after floundering around in the country for a few years, they largely said, “F this, we’re out!“.

So a few years ago Baidu enters the US market. That the search engine filters search results to suit Beijing goes relatively unnoticed, as does actual usage of the company for anything other than investment purposes. Routinely noise gets made about Baidu distributing copyrighted this and that, and Baidu just as routinely starts blocking access to those functions for visitors coming from outside of China. Happy medium.

Then today a couple folks in Flushing, NY, get a smart idea — if Google was forced to adhere to the laws of China while operating inside the country, shouldn’t Baidu have to adhere to the laws of the US while operating there?

Jan132010

14Comments

Posted By
Steven

Google threatens to pull plug on Google.cn

Well-wishers leave flowers at Google China HQ earlier today

Google has announced that it might soon pull the plug on its operations in China, citing grave concerns over some recent, bizarre hack attacks, and lack of freedom of speech.

The official notice on the main Google blog reveals that a concerted hacking attack, which originated in China, has been using phishing and malware to access the accounts of human rights activists.

In the statement, the Chief Legal Officer of Google, David Drummond, detailed the attacks in full. It was not stated explicitly, but I read in the implication that these concerted attempts to get into the Gmail inboxes and Google accounts of these human rights activists was actually government sponsored.

In addition, Mr. Drummond called-out “the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web” in China, but did not name any sites in particular, not even mentioning its own sites which are blocked

Jun212009

16Comments

Posted By
Steven

Is Google Being Evil in China?

The Chinese government notoriously dislikes any organisation, particularly a foreign one, communicating directly to its people – so it’s little wonder that the story of Google in China has been one of jumping through fiery hoops. This week Google has been under attack in China over internet pornography, especially with regards its ‘search suggestions’ drop-down [...]

Feb262008

NoComments

Posted By
Ryan

Getting the basics on Baidu

Think Baidu‘s just a Google copy? Think again. The Chinese search engine that dominates domestic searches may have a lot in common with the “do no evil” American search giant, but it is in itself a whole other animal. On March 10th my good friend and business partner, Professor Lonnie Hodge, will be joining Grace [...]