Google explains its China Syndrome - by Joe Fay

Searchengineland spotted that users tapping 'Google China' into Google will see the usual slew of results, as well as a sponsored link to the blog posting that kicked off the whole Google/China/hacking/dissidents firestorm last week.

However, the firm appears to have limits on exactly who it wants to get its message out to, and users of lesser search engines are not on its radar.

The same search terms on Bing show no sponsored results on the main search page, though the shopping results do serve up some sponsored results. These included florists and valentines in China, though we suspect Google won't be availing itself of such services for a while.

The cupboard is equally bare over at Yahoo!, though a search on China does offer some sponsored links to holidays there. Something else we don't imagine Google top brass doing anytime soon.  Alternatively, it may be that Yahoo! and Microsoft have turned down the Google shilling to tell it to do its own shilling.

Meanwhile, China has played down the impact of its falling out with Google on the broader relationship with Washington. State news agency Xinhua, quoted Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei as saying: "The Google incident should not be linked to bilateral relations, otherwise that would be over-interpreting it."

Note EU-Digest: So far, apart from one protest by Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton, the US has been silent about the incident. While the EU, who consider themselves the "keepers of the book on human rights" have not uttered an official word on the issue, except for a personal condemnation  by EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Unfortunately it seems that in this case the EU and US seem to apply the theory that" money speaks", even on such issues as Human Rights and Censorship.

For more: Google explains China Syndrome by advertising - on Google • The Register