Google is working on a secretive project in an effort to build a version of its search engine that does not go against the online censorship regime of China. The project since has seen an employee-led backlash spanning for weeks at the company.
Internally, the project has been code-named as Dragonfly, and is working fine in performing as required bringing satisfaction for top Google executives. And when launched, the project may allow Google to gain reentrance into online search market of China after almost a decade.
“If Google were to operate in China, what would it look like? What queries will we be able to serve?” chief executive Sundar Pichai said during an event that was hosted by Wired on Monday night. “It turns out we’ll be able to serve well over 99 percent of the queries.”
But the announcement may invite more questions from the policymakers of the US, as the Google company have been accused by some of them for being evasive about Project Dragonfly. Anyhow, Google along with other bigwigs in the tech industry are already under intense scrutiny due to their approach to user privacy and data. Some of the federal lawmakers have even proposed legislation that could bring in new restrictions for the tech companies to comply with regards to handling of consumer data.
As there is a competition among the tech firms, Google too sees the entry into China a massive market opportunity. Presently, China has got an estimated population of about 1.4 billion and a big percentage of it is heavily dependent on Android operating system of Google. As per a report of 2013, every ninth smartphone out of 10 was running Android system. But the position enjoyed by Google in mobile industry may soon fade away as competitors from China have already been preparing to develop alternatives to Android. Getting into the Chinese market may allow Google to get larger Chinese audiences to find more opportunities to serve online advertising and sell mobile apps.
Despite China holding its long history of policy over blocking search queries over politically sensitive material, Google still wants to enter the market and believes that some good for Chinese Internet users can be availed for other kind of information. Pichai on Monday said that Google can help in improving search queries for cancer treatments by providing links of legitimate treatments and as a result, discouraging scams.
But the decision has already set off an internal debate over Google’s corporate values that has been spilled into public view. A letter signed by over 1,400 employees of Google was leaked which cited Dragonfly as being an issue that has seen alarming departure from normal transparency by Google.
“Currently we do not have the information required to make ethically-informed decisions about our work, our projects, and our employment,” the letter read.
The anticipation of Google’s return to China cannot be guaranteed, Pichai opined on Monday.
“I take a long-term view of this,” he said. “And I think it’s important for us – given how important the market is, and how many users there are – we feel obliged to think hard about this problem and take a long-term view.”
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