Common Paradox Tech Blog

The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

Two months ago, Google threatened to shut down its China search engine over censorship. Yet until today, its China search engine has stayed up with results still censored. Now the search company is finally expected to announce that it’s going to actually follow through and slowly shut down its China search engine.

So why does it feel like Google’s impending decision will not have the impact it could have had two months ago?

When Google first made its declaration, the implications seemed enormous. One of the world’s largest technology companies was reigniting the censorship debate. Governments and activists would query China over the Google attacks and the state of free speech in its country, while Google would be taking the moral high ground as it walked away from one of the world’s largest markets due to principle.

Instead, we’ve had a two month “will they or won’t they?” type of affair that even Google’s co-founder said could take a year or two to resolve. Now that the end game may be close, what will happen when Google actually pulls out of the world’s most populated nation?

The answer, sadly, is not much.

Google Is Trying to Have Its Cake And Eat It Too

Ever since the company’s bold statement on censorship in China, it has kept quiet publicly. Privately however, the company has been in talks with the Chinese government over its operations in the Asian nation. Google’s attempts to run its search engine unfiltered though seem to have failed — not a big surprise for those of us who have been tracking the Chinese government’s Internet policies.

Now the heart of the issue seems to be that Google doesn’t want to completely leave China, even if it does shut down its search engine. The company would like to keep operations in the country. The fallout from the Google-China dispute has already affected Android, which is something the company cannot afford to lose in such a budding market.

Has Google’s resolve wavered? It’s tough to tell, but my guess would be no — it will stay true to its word and shut down the Google China search engine if it cannot serve unfiltered search results.

What is happening though is this: it is trying to have the rest of its China pie while coming out looking like the good guys. Operations in advertising, mobile, and non-search fields would stay open, keeping Google’s foothold in China. At the same time, it could take its moral stand.

A Rock and a Hard Place

The problem though is that the message it wanted to send has already been lost. China has won. Its laws have not changed, the damage to China has been minimal at best, and it looks like it will get to keep one of the world’s most powerful technology companies within its borders. Google, on the other hand, has lost much of the shine from its original announcement, will soon give up a small but valuable piece of the Chinese search market, and has weakened its other initiatives in the communist nation.

After Google was hacked, it was put in between a rock and a hard place. Its actions, while still bold, will not change how things are done in China. Its indecisiveness with how to proceed has made the pressure on China all but evaporate.

Google’s going to finally make the stand it promised to make two months ago. It’s unfortunate that it allowed time to rust the shine of its declaration and take away much of the principle and authority that made the decision so powerful and inspiring.

Tags: china, Google, Google China, google search, The Social Analyst

The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

Two months ago, Google threatened to shut down its China search engine over censorship. Yet until today, its China search engine has stayed up with results still censored. Now the search company is finally expected to announce that it’s going to actually follow through and slowly shut down its China search engine.

So why does it feel like Google’s impending decision will not have the impact it could have had two months ago?

When Google first made its declaration, the implications seemed enormous. One of the world’s largest technology companies was reigniting the censorship debate. Governments and activists would query China over the Google attacks and the state of free speech in its country, while Google would be taking the moral high ground as it walked away from one of the world’s largest markets due to principle.

Instead, we’ve had a two month “will they or won’t they?” type of affair that even Google’s co-founder said could take a year or two to resolve. Now that the end game may be close, what will happen when Google actually pulls out of the world’s most populated nation?

The answer, sadly, is not much.

Google Is Trying to Have Its Cake And Eat It Too

Ever since the company’s bold statement on censorship in China, it has kept quiet publicly. Privately however, the company has been in talks with the Chinese government over its operations in the Asian nation. Google’s attempts to run its search engine unfiltered though seem to have failed — not a big surprise for those of us who have been tracking the Chinese government’s Internet policies.

Now the heart of the issue seems to be that Google doesn’t want to completely leave China, even if it does shut down its search engine. The company would like to keep operations in the country. The fallout from the Google-China dispute has already affected Android, which is something the company cannot afford to lose in such a budding market.

Has Google’s resolve wavered? It’s tough to tell, but my guess would be no — it will stay true to its word and shut down the Google China search engine if it cannot serve unfiltered search results.

What is happening though is this: it is trying to have the rest of its China pie while coming out looking like the good guys. Operations in advertising, mobile, and non-search fields would stay open, keeping Google’s foothold in China. At the same time, it could take its moral stand.

A Rock and a Hard Place

The problem though is that the message it wanted to send has already been lost. China has won. Its laws have not changed, the damage to China has been minimal at best, and it looks like it will get to keep one of the world’s most powerful technology companies within its borders. Google, on the other hand, has lost much of the shine from its original announcement, will soon give up a small but valuable piece of the Chinese search market, and has weakened its other initiatives in the communist nation.

After Google was hacked, it was put in between a rock and a hard place. Its actions, while still bold, will not change how things are done in China. Its indecisiveness with how to proceed has made the pressure on China all but evaporate.

Google’s going to finally make the stand it promised to make two months ago. It’s unfortunate that it allowed time to rust the shine of its declaration and take away much of the principle and authority that made the decision so powerful and inspiring.

Tags: china, Google, Google China, google search, The Social Analyst

Today at SXSWi, keynote speaker Danah Boyd took the stage to talk about privacy and publicity, and how they intertwine online. Boyd is a Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, and has studied this space extensively for years. It was a compelling talk that challenged the notion that personal information is on a binary spectrum of public or private. To help underscore her points, she recalled and discussed a number of major privacy blunders from Facebook and Google. You can find my notes from the presentation below.

Boyd says that privacy is not dead, but that a big part of our notion of privacy relates to maintaining control over our content, and that when we don’t have control, we feel that our privacy has been violated. This has happened a few times recently.

There’s no doubt Google has a sense of humor — its excellent April Fools jokes are a testament to that. But there’s a wealth of funnies that can found any time of the year too. Here we pull together a handy list of Google “Easter eggs” that you can uncover right now.

Bearing in mind we’re working up another list covering surprises that can be found in Google Maps, Earth and Street View, have we missed any other tricks from those crazy Google funsters? Do share in the comments below.

1. Try a Different Version of the Google Homepage

Sure, Google’s doodles make the famously sparse homepage a little more funky on certain days, but there are ways to jazz it up any day with some homepage tricks that will turn your search base into a pirate-, Klingon- or even Swedish Chef- themed online property.

Most of these work by entering an exact search term and then hitting the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. There’s a ton of these, some of which have been active for a while.

Google nods to open source software with Linux- and BSD devil-themed options that can be activated by typing “google linux” and “google bsd” then hitting the IFL button.

Those partial to a bit of grog meanwhile can get their Google homepage pirated by doing the same with “xx-pirate.” Google will display in “hacker-speak” if you type in “google l33t.” The Klingon version can be found with “xx-klingon,” and if you want some bork with your Google, enter “xx-bork” to go all Muppet Show.

Even more options include pig latin (“xx-piglatin”), an Easter egg-themed page complete with bunny mini-game (“google easter egg”), and a dark gothic way to search (“google gothic”). Typing “elgoog” offers Google backwards, and there’s an Elmer Fudd tribute at “ewmew fudd.” Finally, it’s not quite a whole homepage change, but entering “ascii art” will make the Google logo display in that style.

2. See Quirky Calculator Results

While the few funny answers Google offers via its Calculator app don’t quite top the amusement to be had by typing 5318008 into your upside-down elementary school calculator, they are nonetheless another sign that the search giant doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Case in point — searching for the number of horns on a unicorn makes the Calculator app spring into life with the answer “1,” which is the same number it returns if you ask Google what the loneliest number is. Searching for “once in a blue moon” brings up “1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz.”

And, always a classic, searching for “the answer to life, the universe, and everything” will trigger the Calculator display “42,” which we all know is a reference to Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

3. View Search Results Funnies

A classic search gag is revealed by asking Google to “find chuck norris” and hitting the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. The result, in bold red, reads “Google won’t search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don’t find Chuck Norris, he finds you.” Suggestions for the next course of action include, “Run, before he finds you.”

Although not falling into the Easter egg basket, some of the auto-suggestions that can be found via Google’s search service are pretty funny, too.

4. Get Teddy Bears and Ninjas

Google programmers have messed around with code for both Picasa and Google Reader to yield some surprising results.

Taking Picasa first, when in the desktop software, hitting control-shift-y will make a teddy bear appear. Hitting the same combo again will give the first teddy a new buddy, and so on. It’s since been revealed this was the childhood bear of photographer and photoblogger Noah Grey who worked with Google on the project.

Reader, meanwhile, gets an even more comprehensive Easter egg. With a reference to the old Konami video game cheat code — that, depending on the game, would give you 30 lives or other bonuses — hitting up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, will make your RSS feed reader go into “ninja” mode.

As well as making some of the screen blue, all your feeds will read “30,” and some of the icons will change (e.g. the like/unlike buttons, which turn into animated hearts). A little cartoon ninja will actually appear on the right hand side of your screen.

5. iGoogle Theme Surprises in the Wee Hours

iGoogle skins are practically chocolate-coated with so many Easter Eggs to be found within. A wide selection of the themes — which tart up your browser bar with pictures that change throughout the day — have a secret that’s revealed at 3:14 AM PST every single day.

Selecting the “beach” theme will mean the Loch Ness Monster makes a mysterious appearance for one minute every day at that time. UFOs will hover over the skyline in “City Scape” and the Yokai, from Japanese folklore, show up in “Tea House”.

Meanwhile, a cartoon monster makes a brief appearance in “Spring Scape,” pi appears in the sky in “Sweet Dreams,” and the Northern Lights put on a show in both “Winter Scape” and “Holiday Village.” Still more include a snow tiger in “Aja Tiger,” pumpkins in “Autumn,” a galleon sailing along in “Hong Kong,” and a spider in “JR.”

It’s almost certainly no coincidence that “3.14″ are the first three digits of pi. It’s the kind of witty play on numbers the Google staffers seem to love and, let’s face it — so do we!

More Google resources from Mashable:

- 5 Ways to Use Google Wave for Business

- Google Wave: A Complete Guide

- Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses

- Google Buzz: What is it Good For?

- 5 Impressive Real-Life Google Wave Use Cases

Tags: easter eggs, Google, google reader, google search, iGoogle

A couple weeks ago, we noted the city of Topeka, Kansas’ humorous attempt to get Google’s attention: by rebranding their city “Google, Kansas.” Why would they do such a thing? Because they want in on Google’s fiber action — the search giant’s proposed plan to sell 1 gigabit-per-second broadband to consumers. Now Baltimore, Maryland is getting in on the fun as well.

The city has appointed a “Google Czar” — yes, that’s the actual title — to lobby the company to put Baltimore on the list of cities in the initial trial. Tom Loveland, CEO of a local tech company, Mind Over Machines, has been appointed by Baltimore’s mayor to take this exalted, but volunteer position.

In January 2009 Vodafone made what seemed like a good investment buying mapping software maker Wayfinder for about $30 million. A year later it’s looking like a pretty awful deal in the wake of free navigation solutions from both Google and Nokia. Facing the inevitable, Vodafone is closing Wayfinder saying, “We could not charge for something that others gave away for free.”

Vodafone has also invested several million additional dollars in Wayfinder, so it can’t be easy to walk away. It’s unlikely they’d do so without being sure they could not compete with Nokia’s Ovi Maps. This really isn’t much of a surprise, especially considering Nokia’s huge presence in Europe. Google Navigation isn’t even available yet in Europe, but clearly Vodafone wasn’t going to sit around and wait for two free solutions to start eating their lunch.

This may be the eventual fate of all the carrier branded navigation apps. Considering the poor quality of many of them, that might not be a bad thing. Would access to a free navigation app from Google or Nokia sway you in your next phone purchase?

Ever since its release, Google has tagged Chrome installs with a unique ID. The search giant is now reportedly abandoning that practice. Future versions of the browser will still install with a unique ID that will be used to check for the first automatic update. After that task is complete, the ID will be deleted.

It has always been Google’s position that the client ID was only used to determine when users update, and in the event of a crash (but only if crash reporting is turned on). Some privacy advocates have long held that the unique identifier could lessen browser privacy. However, no one has ever been able to show that to be the case.

As Chrome continues to gain market share, Google appears to be tweaking it to keep it palatable to users. There is a certain amount of Google fatigue out there, and if privacy concerns become too pervasive, Google could lose public trust.  Even though there was no confirmed privacy breach caused by this feature, does its removal make you feel more comfortable using Chrome?

Yesterday, Foursquare turned one. You read that right: The mobile social network that made its splash at SXSW 2009 and has tremendous buzz is just 366 days old.

Despite that short amount of time, Foursquare has more than half a million users, 1.4 million venues and 15.5 million checkins, and it’s still growing. Experian Hitwise decided to use this milestone to analyze Foursquare’s growth.

As you might imagine, not only have Foursquare’s mobile apps seen growth, but so has Foursquare.com. What did strike us as surprising is that the site’s number-one referrer is Facebook, which accounted for a whopping 33% of upstream visits last week. That’s even bigger than Google (22%) and Twitter (8%) combined. It’s yet another indicator of how much traffic the world’s largest social network can drive.

Searches for Foursquare have also been sharply rising, accounting for around 0.00032% of all U.S. searches. Its most recent peak was February 20, about the time Please Rob Me was gaining the press’ attention.

With more than 15.5 million checkins and nearly 300,000 yesterday (many due to SXSW), Foursquare seems to have a bright future. However, competition from Gowalla, Yelp and Facebook in the local space could give the startup a run for its money this year.

Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Gowalla, Twitter, Yelp

Tags: foursquare, Mobile 2.0

Google has updated its Product Search for Mobile, allowing your search queries to to check the stock levels and availability of products in your area, bringing the overall experience closer to that of what you’re used to on the desktop.  To use the new features, enter in the product you’re looking for, hit the "more" button in the upper right hand corver, select "shopping", and you’re ready to go – vendors that stock the product you’re after will display a blue dot and an "in stock nearby link".  It appears that only larger companies are participating in the program so far, but it’s looking like Google is eager to include to smaller ones as well.

Thanks to John for the tip!

Google’s new social network, Google Buzz, is getting some additional refinement, based on user feedback. Today’s news: The search giant is testing new features that will give you control over the flood of Buzz e-mail notifications.

Google Buzz has the benefit of being integrated directly into Gmail. Not only does it have a prominent tab in millions of inboxes, but it also sends e-mail notifications of recent buzz activity to your inbox. If you’re like us, the e-mail flood can get pretty overwhelming pretty quickly. Plus, anytime someone comments on a buzz thread, the e-mail pops right back up.

Google’s heard you loud and clear. In a buzz post, the Buzz team revealed that it is testing two changes to e-mail notifications to help you better manage your inbox. While these changes are not live yet, they should be up in the next few days.

The first change is something we’ve been seeking for some time: The ability to choose which items get sent to your inbox. If you just want an e-mail when someone comments on your post, it will soon be possible. If you want just posts where you are @replied, that’s possible as well. The second feature is a “Mute” link on individual buzz posts, which will stop a buzz post from reappearing in your inbox every time someone comments.

Both changes are necessary if Buzz is to be usable as a product. Still, Google hasn’t addressed our number-one request: collapsible comment threads.

[via CNET]

Reviews: Gmail, Google, Google Buzz

Tags: email, gmail, Google, google buzz, social media