The Linux Ninja

So Google huffed and puffed about leaving China, but it looks they will likely back down on their threat. Also, the sky is still blue. Why? My best guess is the profits they can generate ultimately outweighed the threats that may have been posed by Chinese nationals / government /all the hacked computers part of a giant botnet that exist there (and any uproar from shareholders who were also disappointed about throwing away money). There’s too much potential for profit and even talent recruiting that Google would sacrifice by leaving China. I doubted Google would ever actually leave China and the more I thought about the situation, the more it seemed like a threat to get either a confession or concessions out of the Chinese government. At least Google chose to use something that would appear to be (at least to me) one of the Chinese government’s biggest fears as their threat: freedom of information to all Chinese citizens. Most likely that will end as they come to some sort of under-the-table agreement about continuing censorship in exchange for marketshare / money / access. I could be wrong and Google may be one of the first major players to stand up to China, but it just seems extremely unlikely.