Search Engine Optimization Help

Both current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former CEO Bill Gates have recently spoken out critically about Google’s stance on doing business in China. (See my previous posts, Ballmer Critical Of Google’s China Decision and Like Ballmer, Bill Gates Dings Google On China.)
Now, Ballmer is putting his thoughts in writing … well, electronic writing [...]

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Bill Gates doesn’t get the fuss everyone’s making over Google’s recent threat to stop censoring search results in China.
“They’ve done nothing and gotten a lot of credit for it,” Gates said Monday during a visit at The New York Times.
“What point are they making?” Mr. Gates asked. “Now, if Google ever chooses to [...]

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At a conference in Houston on Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke critically of Google’s recent decision to stop censoring its search results in China. Paraphrasing some of Ballmer’s statements, Forbes says Ballmer called it an “irrational business decision” on Google’s part.
Ballmer suggested that Google’s decision to no longer filter out internet searches objectionable to [...]

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As we learned in the last post, China says that the United States’ accusations of Internet censorship are baseless. Perhaps, China just needs a little lesson in what censorship actually is. We’ve put together a handy little guide so that government regulators of all nations, but mostly China, know when they’ve crossed that dirty little line over to censorship.

1. If you block access to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube during political riots – that’s censorship.
2. If you repeatedly block search engines until they comply with your ever-changing regulations – that’s censorship.
3. If said regulations involve content restrictions – that’s censorship.
5. If you hire “Internet police” who erase comments – that’s censorship.
6. If you jail cyber-dissidents – that’s censorship.
7. If you require computers sold in your country to be shipped with software that prevents youth’s minds from being poisoned by the Internet – that’s censorship.
8. If you require portals to be down for “maintenance” on the anniversary of pro-democracy protests in your country – that’s censorship.
9. If you block sites related to the Dalai Lama – that’s censorship.
10. If you punish people who post photos and talk about collapsed schools – that’s censorship.
11. If you block sites hosted by the Taiwan government or sites related to the Taiwanese independence movement – that’s censorship.

Got any other tips for China on the subject of censorship? Have at it in the comments below. Just don’t expect them to be available for viewing by Chinese citizens.

The Wall Street Journal noted that Google has purchased search ads for queries done on Google.com for “Google Leaves China” or “Google vs. Baidu.” Clearly, Google wants people to read their position on the recent move for them ending the censorship of Google China.
Here is a picture of the ad:

Google, on occasion, will buy [...]

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After meeting with President Obama at the White House today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer appeared on CNBC. When asked about China, Ballmer asserted that they will continue to offer Bing according to Chinese law.

However, Ballmer did talk about issues that need to be addressed in China – such as the enforcement of intellectual property laws. It seemed pretty obvious that he does want to see progress in China. He just doesn’t feel boycotting the country is the way to accomplish it.

Ballmer also responded to reports that Internet Explorer was also exploited by the hackers that attacked GMail. He said that Microsoft would work to fix any vulnerabilities his investigators uncover.

Google has revealed that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists were targeted last December in a hacking attempt. That, along with other issues, has convinced the company that it will no longer censor results China as the Chinese government wishes.
In particular, Google has willingly allowed self-censored its search results since January 27, 2006, [...]

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Daily Telegraph writer James Delingpole got worked up yesterday because his colleague Christopher Booker’s story on the “Climategate” scandal mysteriously disappeared from Google. Skullduggery, he pondered? Nothing so dramatic, says Google. The article simply grew too big in length to stay in Google News.
Let’s do the breakdown. Booker’s story of November 28 covered the controversy [...]

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Google is buying ads to explain why an offensive image of the First Lady is back in its index and ranking so highly on searches for Michelle Obama in Google Image Search.
As we reported last week, Google had originally removed the Michelle Obama image on the grounds that the site hosting the image violated [...]

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Boycott Microsoft Bing by Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times claims Microsoft is “sacrificing the integrity of Bing searches so as to cozy up to State Security in Beijing.” It is believes that Microsoft is censoring their search results to appease the Chinese government.
Microsoft responded to this criticism with their blog [...]

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Saying the host site was serving malware to users, Google has removed a controversial photo of First Lady Michelle Obama from Google Image Search. The site itself, however, remains listed in Google web search results without any visible malware warning.
Welcome to the murky world of free speech, politics, and Google.
It began last week, when Search [...]

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Oh, the irony: The People’s Daily, the main newspaper of China’s Communist Party, says Google censored its web site by adding a malware warning to search result listings for the newspaper’s book section.
The paper says the malware warning appeared after it ran an article about a Chinese group that has suggested Google’s book search [...]

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PC World reports Google has disabled the ability for users to upload videos or comment on videos at YouTube Korea. Google made this move after South Korea passed a new law that requires sites with 100,000 unique visitors per day to require users to provide their real name and national ID card number before [...]

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A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would limit what Google Maps and other online mapping sites are allowed to show, on the basis that these online tools help terrorists plan attacks.
We’ve been here before: Late last year, the Indian government suggested that Google Earth should be censored after terrorists involved in the Mumbai [...]

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Comparing it to blaming car makers for deadly car bombs, Google Earth chief John Hanke recently said Google shouldn’t be blamed for terrorist use of Google Earth. Hanke defended his online mapping tools in a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
“You have cars; you have car bombs,” Hanke said. “You have GPS transceivers [...]

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The Associated Press reports China has begun the process to “purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors.” This has resulted in the Chinese government finding that both Google and Baidu have failed to take “efficient” actions to remove content from their results after being notified of issues.
The AP added [...]

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The UK government is looking in to giving websites rating similar to those used for movies, Reuters reports, and they are reaching out to the United States to get involved.

While the idea of stricter restrictions for kids’ access to certain web content may not be a bad one, the idea of some government appointed official determining ratings is scary. Or will it be put to a vote? Will we get to vote on who becomes the web czar? How many people will be involved?

Reuters reported Andy Burnham, Britian’s Culture Minister, said “the government was planning to negotiate with the administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to draw up new international rules for English.”

“This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it,” Burnham told the UK Telegraph.

Censorship of the internet by governments is nothing new, but the US government is not the same as China. This initiative seems like a slippery slope. It is definitely something everyone should keep aware of, if it starts you should be recognize the people acting as censors – they will be the same guys pulling the books from our library shelves.

On the heels of the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month, legal advocates in India are asking the country’s High Court to demand that Google blur sensitive locations on Google Earth.
The Times reports that the Indian petition says Google Earth “aids terrorists in plotting…