Technology

Google-China Fiasco: The Complete Picture

Google, the world’s most popular search engine, said last week it was thinking about quitting China after suffering a sophisticated cyber-attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property.

The company has said it is no longer willing to filter content on its Chinese language google.cn engine, and will try to negotiate a legal unfiltered search engine, or exit the market.

The Great Firewall of China

Google’s getting some moral support from the government in its decision to stop censoring search in China.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against Internet censorship Thursday, saying the U.S. government is “committed to helping promote Internet freedom.” While she didn’t directly endorse Google’s decision to potentially shut down its China-based operations, Clinton did say that censorship “should not be in any way accepted by any company anywhere.” She also called upon China to fully investigate the cyberattacks that led to Google’s stance.

This whole Google-China debacle has snowballed faster than you can say “Pectoralis Major Minor in the Main Thing.” The truth, though, is that Google’s beef with China dates back nearly a decade — and these recent turns are really just the straws that broke the Google’s back. Here’s a timeline of the highs and lows that paved the way to the standoff we’re seeing now.

Timeline: Google-China Fiasco

Phase I: The Inception of Google in China

September 2000: Google introduces a Chinese version of its search engine at the Google.com domain.

September 2002: Access to Google’s site is completely blocked in China for about two weeks. It appears the domain name was hijacked and redirected — a move the Chinese government may have been behind. Soon thereafter, signs of restricted access and censored results begin to surface.

Phase II: The Age of Censorship

January 2006: Google relents and launches Google.cn, a specialized version of its search site that filters out pornographic and “politically sensitive” results. The company acknowledges that the filtering “clearly compromises [its] mission,” but notes that “failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world’s population … [would do so] far more severely.”

March 2008: China blocks access to YouTube and Google News during riots in Tibet. It isn’t the first time China has blocked access to specific Google services, and it won’t be the last.

March 2009: Fast-forward one year, and YouTube gets the boot in China again. This ban, by most accounts, is still pretty much in place today.

Phase III: “China Threatens” – Pressure Tactic

June 2009: China finds some pornographic results in the Google.cn site and goes ballistic. The country blocks access to Google until the G-team wipes out every mention of the G-spot.

September 2009: The guy who ran the Google China operation since its inception steps down from his role. Analysts speculate that his departure might be a sign of broader problems between Google and the People’s Republic.

Phase IV: “Google Threatens” – Reverse Pressure Tactic

January 12, 2010: Google announces that it will no longer censor search results in China following an attack on its servers in the country. The attack, Google says, targeted the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. “These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered … have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China,” Google explains in a blog posting. “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn. … We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

Phase V: “China Reacts” – Hey, we are the victims

January 14, 2010: According to Xinhua, China’s official news outlet, the Foreign Ministry is talking up the number of hacking attacks that China suffers. “China’s Internet is seriously threatened by cyber attacks like other countries,” said a spokesperson. Chinese numbers show a 148 percent year-over-year increase in hacking attacks.

As for Google, “Foreign companies in China should respect the laws and regulations, respect the public interest of Chinese people and China’s culture and customs and shoulder due social responsibilities. There is no exception for Google.”

Phase VI: Nobody Else is Leaving

January 14, 2010: A Globe & Mail analysis piece from Canada asks why few other companies are stepping up to back Google’s position.

“While the US State Department looks ready to stand by the Internet giant in its dispute with China, the other 33 foreign firms who were victims of the cyber-attack do not. Some are already looking at ways to jump into the void if Google—which runs the second most popular search engine in the country, well behind China’s own Baidu Inc.—carries through on its threat to leave. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer has pointedly said that his company won’t be leaving China, where it has high hopes for its new Bing search engine.”

Phase VII: Inside Job?

January 18, 2010: Someone hacks into the Gmail accounts of foreign journalists at two Beijing news bureaus. This may or may not be related to the main attack, but its timing certainly doesn’t help with the tension.

January 18, 2010: It’s little more than an anonymously sourced rumor at this point, but Reuters says that insiders from Google’s own Chinese office may have been involved in the cyberattack on the company. Chinese sources have reported that Google China was cut off from Google’s internal network last week while Google security staff investigated the allegations and secured the network.

Phase VIII: Google’s Pissed of Now…No Chinese Android

January 19, 2010: Google announces it’s postponing the release of two Android phones in China. Reports indicate the delay is related to the company’s ongoing talks with Chinese authorities.

Phase IX: US Govt. Sides with Google

January 21, 2010: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashes out against Internet censorship. But you already know that.

Phase X: China Hits back

January 22, 2010: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu insists that the Internet is open in China and warns that the U.S. should “properly handle differences” over the issue or risk damaging bilateral relations. ”We urge the U.S. side to respect the facts, and to stop using the so-called Internet freedom issue to make groundless charges against China,” Mr. Ma said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.

January 24, 2010: The disruption to Google’s services reported by users in Beijing and Shanghai comes a week after China accused Google of deliberately linking to “pornographic and vulgar” websites and ordered it to stop. ”We have found that Google has spread a lot of pornographic content, which is a serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations,” Mr Qin told reporters on Thursday.

January 24, 2010: China demands that all computers come supplied with software called Green Dam Youth Escort from 1 July, which it says would filter out pornographic content.

What is this all about? It may be..

Trade Wars?

The latest comment raises the concern about a broader trade war between the US and China over everything from computer security to chicken poultry imports. It came a day after it filed an unfair trade complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over raw material exports.

The US is now complaining that putting such pressure on manufacturers to pre-install or supply the software would violate China’s WTO free trade obligations.

“China is putting companies in an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues,” said US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

The Green Dam Youth Escort software was created to stop people looking at “offensive” content such as pornographic or violent websites, China has said.

But China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology later said that use of the software was not compulsory and that it was possible to uninstall the program.

Censorship?

But censorship isn’t just a Chinese phenomena.

Last week, researcher Rebecca MacKinnon pointed out in a Guardian piece that local laws all over the world require Google to take various kinds of material: neo-Nazi items in France, child porn in many democracies, taunting and violent user videos in Italy. The basic issue for MacKinnon is who becomes liable?

“But if democracies decide that the primary solution to all these internet-era problems is to hold internet and mobile companies heavily liable for policing users – rather than finding some other way to fight crime and address other socially undesirable behaviour – authoritarian leaders around the world can also breathe a sigh of relief that the so-called free world is moving in their direction rather than the other way round.”

What about India?

Google has been happy to censor material in India, even without the government asking it to do so. “In September, lawyers at Google Inc.’s New Delhi office got a tip from an Internet user about alarming content on the company’s social networking site, Orkut. People had posted offensive comments about the chief minister of India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh, who had died just a few days earlier in a helicopter crash. Google’s response: It removed not just the material but also the entire user group that contained it, a person familiar with the matter says.”

Freedom of speech in India can be tricky when the local penal code allows jail time and fines for those who speak or write with the “deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings” of other Indians.

Google Disguising the acceptance of failure in China?

Baidu defeats Google in the Chinese market. Compared to Google, Baidu does a better job in the understanding of the local market, understanding of Chinese characters in Mandarin and the relations with advertisers.

As per China Daily “China’s flourishing Internet industry and society demonstrates the country’s Internet world develops well under its characteristic management. The market will continue its development in its own way, no matter whether there is Google.cn or not. It is unfair to China that the west puts their finger into China’s Internet regulation.”

What should Google do?

Google Needs China, Moving Out Not a Solution

In the near future China will be an enormously large portion of the Internet, and Google cannot ignore more than 1 billion potential users. Currently, Google’s market share in China is about 33%, with China’s Baidu.com ( BIDU – news – people ) dominating the market. With China’s customer base, there is no reason that Baidu couldn’t become as large as or larger than Google. Access to China’s customer base will help Google maintain its global lead in the search engine market and allow the search giant to continue investing in innovation and helping the U.S. stay the leader in technology and entrepreneurship.

More importantly, the tension between Google and the Chinese government also points to fault lines around the regulation of the Internet as it grows internationally. Internet activity was originally centered in the U.S., but as more emerging economies with large populations continue to grow, the Internet will slowly shift toward the largest revenue base. Policing the Internet through an international organization made up of multiple national governments is difficult, if not impossible, to do. For now at least, companies will simply have to decide between making a political statement or a profit.

Censorship, China, Google

10 Predictions for 2010

As we start to stumble in a state of fatigue towards the end of 2009, I have started to think about what 2010 will bring. Trying to predict events and challenges for the forthcoming 12 months is a bit like throwing chicken giblets at the wall and trying to interpret the patterns. You just cannot be sure which is going to stick and which will fall to the floor. But hey, that’s the fun. So, here’s my list of Top Ten Tech Predictions for 2010.

Google Wave will die in Google Labs as people will never be able to figure out how to benefit from a tool which has been described as “Quantum Leap in Online Collaboration”. I’ve used almost all tools that Google has released and some of them have actually made my life simpler. I guess that’s what their audience has come to expect of them, Simplicity. But by releasing Wave, they’ve underestimated the threshold for user frustration for tool which is not that intuitive. I got an invite couple of months ago and have given it several chances, but it’s still a no-go. In one of the waves, one of the users actually wrote “What does this thing do?”. I still don’t have the answer.
Microsoft’s Cloud Applications will disappoint. This may be a bias going back to when Bill Gates said the Internet would never take off but I have always felt that Microsoft never took cloud based systems seriously and I feel the current online apps builds will fall by the wayside. This is not only because Google and Zoho have a generous head start but because MS seems to be aiming its product at existing PC based users and not embracing new adopters and it’s the latter that will make the market.
Google’s Chrome Browser will take off. Well, it will, once it makes it easy for plug-ins to be added for greater functionality. Let’s face it, Chrome is fast and the latest beta is stunningly quick but I rarely use it because I use Firefox’s easy plug in system. With Chrome it’s like having to sacrifice a goat and a few chickens to assorted heathen deities -it really is that primitive.
Windows 7 will take everyone by surprise and work! I’ll be honest I quite like XP. Having suffered the growth of Windows from 3.11 I thought XP worked well and I only suffered one or two crashes in all the years I ran it. However, after the appalling travesty that was Vista and judging by various feedbacks and trade reports, it looks as though Windows 7 might just cut the mustard.
The Netbook craze will die down. People will start buying new “in-between” devices that are slightly larger and more powerful than today’s netbooks, but smaller, more lightweight and cheaper than regular notebooks. Features like better processors, separate GPUs and SSD HD options set these new “ultra portable” devices apart from the traditional netbook, but they’re still often called “netbooks” because of their size. Market confusion ensues.
Cloud Computing will go through a shake out. There are just too many companies out there for the market to sustain. The big players will go on a buying spree. The consolidation will deeply affect users. Some companies will fold overnight. Users will lose access to their data, leading to a whole new wave of skepticism about cloud computing. But it won’t be enough to slow down the move to cloud computing. More companies will consider the security risks as less of a factor, compared to the cost benefits and potential for innovation. Cloud computing technology will become more of a commodity. The business applications for cloud computing will take center stage.
Oracle-Sun Microsystems deal will close. Mindful of not incurring excessive wrath from the open-source community, Oracle will not kill off MySQL. Instead, it will be inserted into a stack along with Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux, pitted against Microsoft SQL Server.
Intel will be taken down a notch. The U.S. Department of Justice will file antitrust charges against Intel, with state attorneys general joining in while the U.S. Federal Trade Commission pursues its own action against the chip maker and the E.U. keeps up pressure there as well.
Apple’s tablet/e-reader will be unveiled to great spectacle and fanfare in the first quarter of the year. Throngs will stand in line for long hours to be among the first to possess what we predict will be the device to which rivals aspire. Because it’s from Apple, it will have a cool design and user-friendly interface, and cost a load of money.
Android FTW! I expect Android to be the talk of the enterprise, especially if the Google Phone does make it to market. Such a phone would eliminate carrier costs and break down walled gardens that have limited application development.

2010, Predictions, Technology

Google Chrome OS – Everything You Need To Know

Google gave the first public look at its Chrome OS four months after declaring its intention of developing the PC’s main software, a move that pits it directly against Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc.

Google gave the first public look at its Chrome OS four months after declaring its intention of developing the PC’s main software. Here’s everything you need to know about Chrome OS.

I’m a Mac……… I’m a PC.……… I’m a Cloud.

Google, a company born and bred on the Web, has a mighty challenge ahead of it getting into the PC business. Aware of this, Google does not have grand ambitions to take over PCs with Chrome. It’s a browser and cloud-based OS for netbooks designed to be fast, simple and secure. Chrome will not support hard drives, only solid-state storage, and it will only run Web-based applications. There will be no desktop-type software programs allowed.

I’m a Mac……… I’m a PC.……… I’m a Cloud.

Google, a company born and bred on the Web, has a mighty challenge ahead of it getting into the PC business. Aware of this, Google does not have grand ambitions to take over PCs with Chrome. It’s a browser and cloud-based OS for netbooks designed to be fast, simple and secure. Chrome will not support hard drives, only solid-state storage, and it will only run Web-based applications. There will be no desktop-type software programs allowed.

What about Security?

If any application is in danger of being corrupted by malware, Chrome has been designed to reboot itself, after which a clean version of the OS is downloaded. Nearly all user data will be stored in the Google’s cloud computing service and will be encrypted and synchronized constantly between the netbook and the cloud.

Can I Install Applications?

Sure you can, but only one that are available in Android App Store.

Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, spoke to some reporters yesterday, after the Chrome OS presentation. Citing the common WebKit and Linux code found in both operating systems, he said “Android and Chrome are likely to converge over time.”

“We’re reaching a perfect storm of converging trends where computers are behaving more like mobile devices, and phones are behaving more like small computers,” Google said in a statement responding to questions on if and when the two operating systems would converge.

What about speed?

It’ll boot up within 7 seconds.

Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management for Google’s Chrome OS, said that computers running Chrome OS will be able to start in less than seven seconds.

“From the time you press boot you want it to be like a TV: You turn it on and you should be on the Web using your applications,” Pichai said.

Here is a comparison between the boot up process of a normal OS (Windows/Mac) and Google Chrome OS.

When will it be available?

According to Wired, the first netbooks to run on the Google Chrome OS will be released by late 2010. The operating system will not be made available for download; it will only come pre-installed on certain hardware from those who have partnered with Google for this OS project.

If you decide that you wish to get Google Chrome OS, then you will have to purchase a device with it already on. Google is now working with a number of these new partners to discuss hardware features and specifications. What we do know is, these netbooks will be larger than usual and will come with large trackpads and full-size keyboards.

Chrome OS will not work with a standard hard drive, instead only SSD is supported. Google will also use internet-based storage; this will help to save space on your hard drives for more important things, such as videos, photos and music.

Is this the dumb terminal we’ve been waiting for?

Yes and I think that if done correctly, a pure dumb terminal approch would be amazing. Imagine a small netbook with following features:

1. Unlimited storage

2. No hardware restrictions (it would kill the need for new hardware overnight).

3. Proper control over software licencing via Android Appstore.

4. No viruses.

5. No Risk of Data loss (All data stored in cloud).

Reality Check

Google’s vision for Chrome OS isn’t going to replace what is on your desk now…unless you are working and reading this on Netbook that is.

If you are – my condolences – that’s no way to live. Netbooks are good for fun stuff, but they aren’t great for getting work done. Cramped keyboards, slow processors, small screens are no way to live. If you spend time on your computer, as lots of us do, every optimization saves us lots of time and money

It reminds me of the Chris Rock sketch where he mentions that, “you can drive a car with your feet, it doesn’t mean it is a good $#@#%ing idea”.

Google is realistic about this though. Google doesn’t want the desktop market, at least initially. They want to own the Netbook market. Even with (or should I say because of) the lousy economy, this market has been blowing up for the past few years and continues to do so.

One major reason is because most Americans already have a PC, but more and more of us are opting for that second machine. The machine to take on trips, to use before going to bed or outside on the deck (and yes the bathroom, so I’ve heard).

Windows wasn’t meant for Netbooks. XP was designed in 2002, 5 years before ASUS delivered the first Eee. Vista was a dog on Netbooks and 7 isn’t much better (and is being crippled by Microsoft). There really just isn’t a match there.

Google hopes to exploit this by not just designing an OS for today’s netbooks. They are designing an OS for tomorrow’s netbooks. By only utilizing SSDs and running all of their applications in the cloud, Google’s OS will have a slew of advantages over Microsoft and even some solid Linux variants that don’t have the mainstream branding that Google has.

But, like I said earlier, if you spend your day working on a computer, you are still going to want native apps for a lot of what you do. Even things like email and calendar often work better with a native application even though Google’s work almost as good.

As a second computer however, Google’s product seems perfect. Especially at the low netbook or lower prices.

What about Security?

If any application is in danger of being corrupted by malware, Chrome has been designed to reboot itself, after which a clean version of the OS is downloaded. Nearly all user data will be stored in the Google’s cloud computing service and will be encrypted and synchronized constantly between the netbook and the cloud.

Can I Install Applications?

Sure you can, but only the ones that are available in Android App Store.