Google Deals in Doubt Amid Spat with Beijing

China issued a blistering public attack against Google on Wednesday and appeared to quietly begin getting businesses to abandon the U.S. Internet giant after it moved its controversial Chinese search engine offshore.

The critical remarks in a high-profile Communist Party newspaper coupled with souring business deals underscored Beijing's determination to settle scores with Google Inc. after a public two-month dispute over stringent Chinese censorship policies. By challenging the often tetchy government, Google appears to have violated an unspoken rule of doing business in China, especially in the Internet industry whose control Beijing sees as crucial to maintaining its authoritarian rule.

"Everybody in the Internet space operates under the good graces of the government, and if the government's not happy with your partner, you probably are going to have to change," said T.R. Harrington, founder and CEO of Shanghai-based Darwin Marketing, which specializes in advertising for China's search engine market.
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Chinese Media Say Google to Leave China Next Month

Chinese media reports say U.S. Internet giant Google will close its business in China after complaints of censorship and cyber-attacks. The reports say the announcement could come as early as next week, although Google is refusing all comment.

In January, Google unexpectedly said that it is prepared to pull out of China because of cyber-attacks and concerns over government censorship.

On Friday, the China Business News, one of the country's top economic papers, quoted an unnamed official with a Google-affiliated agency as saying he has learned that Google will leave China next month.

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Google Honours Iranian Women Bloggers

Internet giant Google on Thursday joined a top journalists' rights group in rewarding a collective of Iranian women bloggers for their reporting on last year's post-election unrest.

The online journalists of women's rights blog we-change.org were given the "Net Citizen" award, a new prize by Google and French media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to defend freedom of expression online.

Dozens of the Iranian site's contributors have been detained for reporting online on huge anti-government demonstrations that broke out amid claims of fraud in Iran's election, RSF said.

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Internet Explorer 6 Finally Laid to Rest!

A design group in Denver thought it was finally time to put Internet Explorer 6 to rest, holding a mock funeral for the outdated Microsoft browser last night. It was 8 years old.

Apparently, IE6 died from “a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc.” (Sounds like a hit job…) Event organizers suggested “funeral” attire, but added that there would also be a tapas bar. That seems more like it for a tech event.


Microsoft showed they have a sense of humor too, as they sent some flowers in remembrance for the deceased.

The news of this funeral means that any of you still using IE 6 must upgrade IMMEDIATELY!