China once is again showing why patents and copyrights are meaningless, and why companies who hold such intellectual property cannot trust the Chinese government. A Google look-alike site called Goojjle has launched in China, yes, China allows a fake Google.
Goojjle a Chinese Google Look Alike
Google has had a well-publicized spat with the Chinese government regarding its alleged hacking of gmail accounts, and threatened to leave the country. This bodes well for Baidu, the Chinese-run search engine, and the rip-off artists who take others’ ideas and copy them for their own profit, without risk of backlash from the lawless Chinese government.
A similar site in a country with enforceable laws would have been taken down almost immediately, with cease and desist letters sent within minutes of Google’s legal department becoming aware of the site.
It is pretty clear that China’s government is no friend of the United States legal system, and has no interest in enforcing laws within its borders so long as it can benefit monetarily. Our government seems to turn the blind eye when it comes to foreign relations with China, not wanting to upset them for fear of something, of which I am not certain.
While I am a huge proponent of using their limitless labor pool which helps us monetize the Chinese market from sales of McDonalds, Coke and eBay, any company that decides to use this labor to build a patented product should do so at their own risk.
There is some real irony here as Chinese search engine, Baidu, is suing Register.com, it’s U.S. based web hosting company for allowing hackers to penetrate their servers and take down their site.
The hackers re-directed Baidu traffic to a page that read, “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.” These are the same folks who have allegedly hijacked several other well-known sites in the last few months.
A company headquartered in a country with little litigation and nominal copyright protection, that is also believed to be behind many high-profile cyber attacks themselves, can sue an American company for negligence. That is funny, but not in the ha-ha fashion.
I realize this is our system, a system that offers outsiders all the protections of citizens, but that same system can also be our downfall when we offer these rights to those who can abuse them for the benefit of their government. Certainly if the tables were turned, a US-based company would have little or no recourse suing a Chinese company on Chinese soil, just ask Bill Gates and Microsoft.
Let’s expand to China…let’s invest in China…China is the fastest growing economy…China this and China that. The Chinese government has been savvy enough to control the better portion of their 1.3 billion citizens and silence the ones who have gotten in the way.
Supposedly if you are on Chinese soil and search Google for “Tiananmen Square” you will not receive any results that mention a student revolt, death, demonstrations, worldwide outrage – nothing like that. This link to the Huffington Post illustrates the point succinctly – China censors Google. Of course, Google allows this to happen, but that is not the point of this article.
Tiananmen Square Student Tank Protest
Chinese ability to muzzle their citizens is masterful, bordering on amazing. Yahoo has a microblogging site called Meme, that is now available in Chinese, but the world’s largest audience of Chinese speakers and readers cannot access this site because the Chinese government has blocked access on the mainland. Yes, Yahoo’s Meme in Chinese is not available in China.
Facebook, Twitter and many other blogging and social networks have been blocked at times or are currently blocked to Chinese Internet users. Some members of the government believe that increased online access can lead to social instability and unrest and have requested that websites “monitor” content.
If faced with these restrictions in the USA, there would be a revolt of citizenry, as we are accustomed to and granted certain freedoms, whereas the Chinese are just now able to own personal property, wear (fake) Nike shoes and watch (bootlegged) Hollywood movies. My question is, are we as Americans better off with China becoming more open and democratic or with their government running the show?
The headline on yesterday’s New York Daily News blared, “Google Profits Soar,” and it’s no secret why.
Yes, part of the reason is Google rules the search game, with over sixty percent market share, but also because the management at Yahoo are blithering idiots, with those at Microsoft (Bing, MSN, Live) not far behind.
When you or I search for something at Google, Bing, Ask or most search engines, it’s free, and the search engines make nothing, provided you don’t click on a “Sponsored Link.” Sponsored links are the ads listed on the far right side of the page in that vertical box, or on top of the page in the slightly off-color area.
A company will pay a handsome fee to be listed in these sponsored areas so you, the consumer, will see them first – and hopefully click to reach their website. All search engines do this – but coming up next is where Google wins and Yahoo is plain pathetic.
Google has a program called AdSense, in which website owners can apply to the program and run Google ads on their own website. If approved, Google provides some unique code that the website owner installs and then almost like magic, advertising appears on their website. Google and the website owner then share this revenue.
Google AdSense Partner TheParty.Net
There are hundreds-of-thousands of these websites within the Google network, so Google doesn’t need direct traffic to generate revenue, they can rely on others – and it is pure profit.
Yahoo’s Publisher Network program is somewhere in hyperspace, between never-never land and who-knows-where. It has been in Beta since 2007, possibly earlier.
I applied for the Yahoo Publisher Network program August 9, 2007 for another website I operate, and this was the response: Thank you for applying for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. It is currently in beta and we are accepting a very limited number of new publishers, but we will let you know when we launch to the general public or if we are able to invite you to join the beta before then.
Out of curiosity, I applied with Yahoo once again this afternoon, and the automated response read: Thank you for your interest in the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. This is to confirm that your information will be stored in our database and be considered for the beta program.
For all you Yahoo shareholders out there, that is at least 798 days in Beta.
The issues with Yahoo search are for another day. The fact that Google is earning ridiculous profits is great, the reasons why Yahoo is not is also clear and I wonder if new CEO Carol Bartz has her finger to the pulse of the Internet community enough to right the ship. Jerry Yang was brilliant in launching the company, but he didn’t see this glaring issue when he was CEO, prior to Bartz.
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Reddit]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.logicalrepublican.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
Google look alike site Goojjle launches in China
Monday, February 8th, 2010China once is again showing why patents and copyrights are meaningless, and why companies who hold such intellectual property cannot trust the Chinese government. A Google look-alike site called Goojjle has launched in China, yes, China allows a fake Google.
Goojjle a Chinese Google Look Alike
Google has had a well-publicized spat with the Chinese government regarding its alleged hacking of gmail accounts, and threatened to leave the country. This bodes well for Baidu, the Chinese-run search engine, and the rip-off artists who take others’ ideas and copy them for their own profit, without risk of backlash from the lawless Chinese government.
A similar site in a country with enforceable laws would have been taken down almost immediately, with cease and desist letters sent within minutes of Google’s legal department becoming aware of the site.
It is pretty clear that China’s government is no friend of the United States legal system, and has no interest in enforcing laws within its borders so long as it can benefit monetarily. Our government seems to turn the blind eye when it comes to foreign relations with China, not wanting to upset them for fear of something, of which I am not certain.
While I am a huge proponent of using their limitless labor pool which helps us monetize the Chinese market from sales of McDonalds, Coke and eBay, any company that decides to use this labor to build a patented product should do so at their own risk.
Tags: baidu, china, copyright laws, fake google, google, goojjle, patents
Posted in Business, Politics, The Economy | No Comments »