Google has announced that, due to the recent attempts to hack into email accounts of Chinese human rights activists, it is no longer going to censor its search results for Chinese internet users. Brilliant news, I thought. Then I remembered what Google is actually like and I began wondering what their motive was.

For example, their Adwords have made them an absolute fortune. These are mainly on the right-hand side of the search results (and also sometimes above the ‘natural’ listings) and on many third party sites, including some blogs. Google makes money every time someone clicks on the ads. I noticed that they were accepting ads for really degenerate ’services’ like wives who also did prostituting. At the time, I was spending a few thousand a year on Adwords myself, and so I emailed their place in Ireland to complain and requested the email address of the CEO. I was refused. Twice.

The Christian Institute wanted to run anti-abortion ads, but Google blocked them, despite gladly advertising abortion clinics. The Institute had to threaten legal action and Google gave in.

Google has played along with Beijing’s censorship shenanigans thus far, so I am wondering if the bad name Google has in this area worries them enough to stand up to the Commies and risk having to pull out of China altogether and lose billions in advertising revenue.