Is Android bad for Google? China firewall edition.

Regular readers know that Google annoys the hell out of me. Mostly because they have jiggered the Internet such that there's almost nowhere I can go, nothing I can do, without their knowledge and involvement.

Oh, and I can't recall *a single fucking non-duplicitous statement* that one of their top people has made when speaking to the public.

I'd rather you say nothing than bullshit me, Google.

One of the more shit-filled statements from Google was their taking-the-high-ground "leaving China" statement over censorship and theft. But, based on history, I wrote months ago:

Despite what Google has told you about not donig business in China because of restrictions, know that it's bullshit. One of the *primary* reasons for buying Motorola was to use it to get back into China. Same with the purchase of Android. 

Can't have a billion fucking people on the Internet *not* using Google now, can we?

I'm a pistol, aren't I?

Today, MIC Gadget examines all the many way that Google is "stepping up" its efforts in China:

Google has reignited its effort to expand in the world’s largest internet market. The company is stepping up its pace in China by providing new services and hiring more engineers, sales personnel and product managers in the country. The goal is to boost the development of its Android operating system for mobile devices, online advertising and product search services in this booming region, where the number of internet users had just passed 500 million …

About 60% of smartphones in China use the Android system, and budget Android tablet will rise this year. Google views this as its most profitable business product in the world’s second-largest economy. The barrier which Google is facing now might be their online app store. It still remains accessible in China but Google is not getting benefit of it. Android phones shipped officially in China have application stores from handset makers or third parties pre-installed instead of Google’s official Android market, and this might affect Google’s online advertising.

Come now. Give Brian some sugar!

I can certainly understand why a giant public company is ramping up its business in China. I just wish Google and all the smart people it employed believed each of us were smart enough to *not be lied to every fucking day about every fucking issue*. 

Only, in this case, and despite the fact that Larry Page has effectively exiled Sergey to Google Siberia, I don't think it's simply another example of Google faux grandstanding over fre and open and standards and neutrality.

Rather, I think it's another example of how Android appears to be causing Google to betray every one of its values. Net neutrality. Open. Anti-censorship. All content is equal.

Where hasn't Android caused Google to betray itself?

And speaking of betrayal, what are the leaders of the web doing about China's firewall? Wikipedia, Reddit, Google et al tut-tutted SOPA, quite publicly. What is their stand on China's control of web information and access? Are they doing anything to change this?

China's netizens' base reached a little more than 500 million in November, last year, Gao Xinmin, the vice chairman of the Internet Society of China said at Internet Industry Annual Conference 2011 held in Beijing.

China has 340 mobile phone netizens, accounting for about 65.5 per cent of the total Chinese netizen population, Gao said. China has nearly a billion mobile phone users fetching a revenue of about USD 90 billion.

Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, saw its members exceed 300 million by the end of last year. That's a figure that exceeds the entire population of many countries, state-run CCTV said in its report. Weibo has nearly doubled in size within a period of six months last year, with 132 million new members registered. It counts over 10 thousand government organisations as its members too.

So much so it has emerged as an alternative media challenging the might of the official media. The government has already initiated measures to crackdown on its users. New rules stipulate that all users should register with their real identity.

Interesting, is it not, that Google's latest big push, Google+, and China, both require "real identities"? 

Why are the big, powerful, profitable giants not *publicly* speaking out against a controlled and constrained China Internet?