Great Googly Moogly...people finally figured out Google is a business, not the underdog darling of the American Internet age. And like a business, it makes business decisions. Not surprisingly, Google followed Microsoft and Yahoo! and kowtowed to the Chinese government's demands that it prevent "inappropriate" materials from flowing to the population of China. Even less surprising is the reaction - Google's own corporate motto is the less than aptly turned phrase, "Don't be evil".

The politics of using the most popular search engine has suddenly turned around for millions of people. Driving along I-5 this morning, I veered out of the way of a Subaru Forester that had a "free Tibet" sticker on the back. No surprise there - after all, I live down the street from three guys who wear saffron to work. But what was surprising was the Google logo with a red hash mark across it sitting right next to it.

After all, it was only twelve hours after I read on Google News that Google had decided to self-censor its China portal. Three hours after I'd found that links to companies like Budweiser and Bacardi and information sites on sex education and teen pregnancy were blocked by the Google China search engine, and one hour after I read five blogposts swearing to never use the search engine again - three of which came from politicos whose livelihoods revolve around treating China as the big bad red state of the world.

Oh what fun it is to find kneejerk politics on your way to work tonight. Or something.

Google's decision to censor its China portal. Controversial? Or just another portal doing what it's gotta do to gain market share in a country desperate for more content?

After all, Microsoft and Yahoo! recently ate a plateload of judgemental vitrol from lefties, righties, and independent…ies for their decisions to censor themselves in China. Microsoft's second decision to shut down an anti-Chinese government blogger on its China servers was the news of the week come Monday morning.

Some of the censorship looked to be more blanket coverage than actual refined censoring. For example, the University of Pennsylvania's engineering school server was blocked because it hosted a Falung Gong site. And like anything else going through a shakeout, the service drew flacks of all kinds gleefully kicking the search engine powerhouse.

But China has been the preferred trading partner of the United States for well over a decade, and as any Wal-Mart shopper can tell you, China is THE place to get your gear if you're an American. I built a computer over the Christmas holiday using components from all over the world…well, okay, everything was made in China. Every component, from the motherboard to the DVD-ROM drive - even the cables and the case and the plastic fans - made in China.

So…why wouldn't Google hit that? And an even better question is - why is Google suddenly the poster child for cooperation with a regime that tends to play fast and loose with the definition of "enemy of the state"? (We're talking about China, people. CHINA. Not the current Bush adminstration.)

The hyprocrisy of the situation makes me laugh - pick up anything off of your desk, from the computer monitor to your CD-ROM drive to the stainless steel coffee mug to your picture frames. If seventy-five percent of your consumer goods don't have "Made in China" stamped somewhere on it, you win a prize - a trip to your local Target or Wal-Mart for more cheaply-made Asian goods.

Haier refridgerators, New Balance sneakers, Nike bags, Starbucks coffee mugs, metal climbing caribiners, your socks, your shoes, your cowboy boots, your keyboard and your mouse? Made in China. And suddenly we're going to scream bloody murder over Google doing business with the Chinese government? The involvement of US high-tech and software companies, high-end consumer manufacturing, and even entertainment industries has been heading West - far more West than California - for years now.

Even last month, India's animation industry signed a multimillion dollar deal with that all-American animation institution, Disney, to produce animation features. Labor's cheaper, the art's as good, and the only thing that the cartoons are really going to need are the voices of popular American actors to throw their voices behind the images.

The question isn't whether or not Google is supporting a dictatorial regime with blood on its hands. Nobody, least of all the people who are beating their brows over the fact that China tends to aggressively quell dissent, should be shocked over this. The Dalai Lama has the right to scream bloody murder over it (and being the Dalai Lama, won't), but the rest of the world that's out throwing stones at Google over this needs to step off for a minute and quit waving that little plastic American flag of intellectual freedom (made in China).

Mickey Spiegel, senior researcher in the Asia division of Human Rights Watch (blocked by Google.cn and Yahoo.cn but not Microsoft.cn), said Google.cn was "a step backwards in terms of freedom of expression issues."

"It will leave the Chinese populace with less and less ability to, in a sense, think for themselves about some of the issues facing them today," Spiegel said. "They are going to have a restricted diet of info and that is going to color how they view the world. It's a big story, and it's a stain on their (Google's) image."

But frankly, if you want boogeymen to hound over supporting the Chinese government, Wal-Mart, Target, and Nike are good places to start. Financially, the Chinese government has been subsidized by the major American retailers for years, and the material support given in terms of dollars far exceeds what is essentially a content provider's decision to tap the Chinese market.
I suppose the cultural acceptance that THOSE American companies do business on a grander scale with a cultural despotism is perfectly okay, since it means we don't pay too much for our cheap DVD players and athletic shoes. Google, however, being a web portal site, founded by two guys and staffed by an intellectual elite ought to hold itself to a higher standard of ethics, right? I mean, we expect to see daily and weekly moral compromises out of companies like Nike, Wal-Mart, and Target, but Google? Surely, you jest.

The idea that a company should be the spearhead of a cultural revolution for the Western standard is laughable at best, but that's the current expectation of the media and every single person that's come out, full guns ablazing in self-righteous anger over the fact that Google has decided to play by China's rules.

And I also find it somewhat disturbing that an entire host of people blissfully sail their way into hyperbolic invective against a corporate entity because it's the easy thing to do. Blame a policy of a company with cash. Turn them into a focal point. Hammer on their stock price. Use them as the straw man of the day against the greater questions that people aren't going to ask until it's too late to extricate ourselves.

Google is a search engine and tool. It can provide content, but currently only to the people that can afford Internet access in China. And in a country where the median income for professionals is approximately $3,500 US, the Internet is a luxury most cannot afford. And for the average Chinese surfer looking through the eyes of Google at the rest of the world, the simple fact that they CAN run a search might be miracle enough for now.