Blog Compass Lite 2.0 - personal blog About Me Album Bookmarks

Thursday, January 26, 2006

BBC: Google move 'black day' for China

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google move 'black day' for China
Whether or not Google's self censorship is correct is beyond my scope of discussion, but if Google wants to gain market share and popularity in China it should well aware that China is a pretty special market.
1) People want more than just a searching tool
A mere searching tool may not be enough to satisfy the public. Consolidated information in a portal may be more appropriate. (Remember Sohu?)
2) Some demands are controversial
The most successful module of baidu is MP3 searching. Songs that are popular in Asia Pacific to be specific. If Google is offering similar service the copyrights alone will be an issue to settle.
3) Indexing of mainland websites
Make sure that the indexing database supports all kinds of Chinese character encodings. UTF-8 is favourable for global searching, but in case of a closed environment of country search, Google may have to verify its support for traditional and simplified Chinese.
4) Strike for a balance
Between market sharing and availability of information, Google has to strike for a balance. (Excessive censorship may drive audiences away too.)