guardian.co.uk
By:  Zhang Hong

In contrast to Google’s stand against online censorship, Gates’s ‘business as usual’ comments betray China’s internet users

I am not surprised by Bill Gates and his close partner Steve Ballmer downplaying Google’s decision to retreat from China. I assume this is a business comment intended to placate the Chinese government and help Microsoft’s Bing search engine in the Chinese market.

Microsoft’s biggest failure has been its ignorance of new search engine technologies. This means its current biggest rival is Google – while people believe Microsoft has become too stuck in its ways to catch up with new technological trends. Bing is Microsoft’s rival to Google and China has the world’s largest number of net users. So it’s commercially correct for Gates and Ballmer to blame Google for being too sensitive.

However, they might be too optimistic about China’s internet environment, especially concerning online censorship.     more …