Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin admit ambivalence about their decision to cooperate with China in this Guardian report from Davos. Not that they plan to do anything about it, though.
Google's decision to censor its search engine in China was bad for the company, its founders admitted yesterday.Asked whether he regretted the decision, Mr Brin admitted yesterday: "On a business level, that decision to censor... was a net negative."
They then proceed to hedge on whether any changes would be made with respect to China.
From what was said yesterday a policy change seemed unlikely in the near future. Co-founder Larry Page said: "We always consider what to do. But I don't think we as a company should be making decisions based on too much perception.
And then there's this odd comparison to Microsoft.
Since moving into China, Google has been compared to Microsoft because of its dominant position and power. "We are very sensitive to people talking about us in that way," said Mr Brin. Mr Page described the differences between the two technology companies by saying "we have very open partnerships, we are very clear about being fair with revenues."
Google is more "fair with revenues" than Microsoft!?! Where did THAT come from?
The rest of the article contains a touch of guilt over their private jet (a Boeing 767, no less)
"I was concerned about my private jet travel and whatnot ... I wanted to offset it so I did."Mr Brin said yesterday that he would feel a "bit better about it" by doing something "more specific" but declined to outline what that might be.
This is really the first article I've come across where Larry and Sergey come across as sensitive limosine liberals.
¶ 1/27/2007
