Google may shelve Google.cn

Failure to get even one per cent of Google.com users, flak from human rights group may have an effect.

Beijing: Google is toying with the idea of abandoning its Chinese search engine Google.cn, media reports said.

Google.cn was launched on January 25, 2006, with servers based in China. Google is unhappy that the China-based search engine does not even have one per cent of the users of its flagship Google.com

But Google's Chinese representatives have declined to comment on the issue. They also declined to divulge the market share of the Chinese version of Google.

Google is named Gu-Ge in Chinese for market promotion. Though Google is the overwhelming market leader in the world of search engines, it has failed to make an impact in China. The market leader in China is Baidu, which has more than half of the market share in the world's most populous nation.

Meanwhile, Google co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged on June 6th that the firm may have compromised its principles by bowing to Chinese censorship.

He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.

Brin told reporters that Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after it was blocked by authorities in China.

Brin pointed out that Google's rivals also bowed to censorship in China, but said Google was uncomfortable with the demands of China.

Brin said Google felt that perhaps it could exhibit some compromise but provide ultimately more information to the Chinese users.

It may be noted that Google has fought the U.S. Justice Department in court to limit the amount of information the government can get about users' searches.

Google.cn omits "politically sensitive" information, including details about the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. This has drawn considerable flak from human rights groups.

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