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Here's a question for our Chinese members: As Google is marketed using the English alphabet does this have any impact on the product marketing in China at all? Can people pronounce Google without the Chinese characters?
Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday defended the search engine's cooperation with Chinese censorship as he announced the creation of a Beijing research center and unveiled a Chinese-language brand name.......Schmidt was speaking at a ceremony to announce Google's Chinese-language brand name -- ``Gu Ge,'' or ``Valley Song,'' which the company says draws on Chinese rural traditions to describe a fruitful and rewarding experience.
Google is bringing the World to China because the rest of the world is blocking out China.
I'm blocking them, along with many other countries that are just about as bad. These countries aren't allowed to access my servers anymore due to all the hacking and spamming coming from there.
That also means Google-China won't be accessing my servers, but that's OK with me.
When China gets rid of their evil ISP's, I'll consider opening the door to them. In the meantime, they can stay away.
-Maurice
Everyone afraid to say the real reason for Google doing this?
Google is bringing the World to China because the rest of the world is blocking out China.I'm blocking them, along with many other countries that are just about as bad. These countries aren't allowed to access my servers anymore due to all the hacking and spamming coming from there.
That also means Google-China won't be accessing my servers, but that's OK with me.
When China gets rid of their evil ISP's, I'll consider opening the door to them. In the meantime, they can stay away.
-Maurice
In this case Google is announcing a localization of their name. I'll have to admit that I don't spend all that much time following the minutia of every move that Google makes world-wide...but isn't this a unique case? I haven't heard of Google using anything other than "Google". Choosing a name in Chinese characters looks like Google is taking an extra step that they haven't elsewhere.
Everyone afraid to say the real reason for Google doing this?
Google is bringing the World to China because the rest of the world is blocking out China.I'm blocking them, along with many other countries that are just about as bad. These countries aren't allowed to access my servers anymore due to all the hacking and spamming coming from there.
That also means Google-China won't be accessing my servers, but that's OK with me.
When China gets rid of their evil ISP's, I'll consider opening the door to them. In the meantime, they can stay away.
-Maurice
Whom do you think you are? Are you the speaker of all webmasters?
Whom do you think you are? Are you the speaker of all webmasters?
... for choosing a Chinese name for their operations...
on my end only means "Banned IP from Gu Ge"
Edit: will we have a new GuGeBot as well, or business as usual?
I can only see this as Google distancing itself from the Chinese operation until it becomes more acceptable to do business in China.
And then there are the companies whose choose a name too quickly only to find that it means something entirely different, or even objectionable, and then have to spend heaps of money in correcting the mistake.
Then there are the other aspects to take into account, being careful not to choose something that is questionable from a cultural, political, or a multitude of other points of view.
As an example, luckily for me, most of my Chinese friends have little or no trouble pronouncing my nick name, so that is what is used more often than my real name. Even then, for those who are having trouble, I often pronounce it "Wo Ze" meaning I (am) Four. BUT, I have to be careful not to pronounce it "Wo Ze" which would mean I (am) dead.
So, this is really just an exercise in relating to the local populace on Google's part, by choosing a pleasing name easily understood by people on the street; a good choice in my opinion.
Onya
Woz
Interesting thread, Maurice.
do you receive lots of spam emails from Mainland?
I assume you mean the USA?
I get maybe one or two spams per week that actually get through. Then I deal with them.
There are a number of "attempts", but they don't get past the mail server. They are generally rejected due to incorrect protocols in the header so the body of the email is never received.
The one I get a big kick out of are the ones that come from ".biz" email addresses. Every one of them uses "HELO friend" in the header. Stupid spammers just don't know any better. I've also never personally seen a legitimate .biz email address. They always fail to get through.
All the spammers using phony email addresses fail just for that reason, they are using phony email addresses. The callback function catches that one every time.
My operation is very small, but still good for a comparison in percentages. Prior to blocking out China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Russia, Bulgaria, Africa, much of South America, and other countries, I would receive maybe 300-400 spam attempts in a 24 hour period. Now I get maybe 10-20 attempts. I just got to work and looked at the log files and see that between the time I went home last evening until this morning, there were only 5 spam attempts during the night. None of them had correct headers and were rejected.
So, yes, I get spam attempts from the United States, but they don't get through and they appear mostly to be from home computers possibly affected by a virus or something. But when a spam does get through from the US, I can do something about it. I always send the info to the ISP and they will deal with it. Many times I call them on the phone and speak to someone in charge personally. That really gets some attention. I've had people fired for trying to send spam from work computers.
I won't waste my time trying to send an email to an ISP in China, they'll just ignore it. The best method is to just block the country. I can do that because I don't have any friends or customers in China. Others may not be so lucky.
-Maurice
And then there are the companies whose choose a name too quickly only to find that it means something entirely different, or even objectionable, and then have to spend heaps of money in correcting the mistake.
A good example of this is back in about 1981 when Commodore came out with the VIC-20 computer. They found out they had a problem with this name in the German market. They had to relabel it as VC-20.
If you have a German friend, ask him why?
-Maurice
Whom do you think you are? Are you the speaker of all webmasters?
No, but many feel the same way. You can't deny that.
To keep this on topic...
Here's what Google should do as they progress into China: I hope they get so big and make so much money over there, that they can simply buy up all the ISP's and rid them of all the sources of spamming and hacking that is killing the internet for legitimate people.
Or maybe they will simply set an example for all others to follow over there. After all, Google really does try to keep things clean. There's no doubt about that.
They could set up a Chinese Spam and Hacking Reporting Center for the World. Google would be so big, that they could influence the Chinese government to crack down on these ISP's.
-Maurice
p.s. Don't get me started, because I've become thoroughly disgusted with all the nonsense taking place through the internet. I am not alone in this.
I took "Mainland" to mean "Mainland China," as opposed to Taiwan or Hong Kong. For what it's worth, I've had rogue visitors from all three locations, but probably mostly from Mainland China (which I suspect is primarily due to relative population sizes).
So, if I visit Google.CN [google.cn], is that "Gu Ge" I see in the lower right-hand corner of the Google logo? If so, I was expecting something a bit more interesting (and larger!). As a Westerner, the characters have the obvious exotic flare of Eastern scripts; I just thought Google would add some colour or something.
Can anyone tell me what is the Chinese Government website that's linked from the Google homepage (miibeian.gov.cn)?
So, if I visit Google.CN, is that "Gu Ge" I see in the lower right-hand corner of the Google logo?
Personally, I don't like the Chinese name "Gu Ge". The pronunciation of 'Gu'is quite strange, something stucks in your throat.
[googlechinablog.com...]
And the official Icon maybe this:
[static.flickr.com...]
Picture was taken by one Chinese blogger at the press conference.
[edited by: Woz at 2:25 am (utc) on April 15, 2006]
[edit reason] Made links live. [/edit]
Can anyone tell me what is the Chinese Government website that's linked from the Google homepage (miibeian.gov.cn)?
Well, www.Miibeigan.gov.cn is a branch of Ministry of Information Industry PRC that takes charge of Website/internet supervision and administration.
"google" sounds like "dog" in Chinese
i used to call it dog_dog
btw gu ge is not a nice name......
I am from China
I hope they get so big and make so much money over there, that they can simply buy up all the ISP's (in China)
Daydreaming
They could set up a Chinese Spam and Hacking Reporting Center for the World. Google would be so big, that they could influence the Chinese government to crack down on these ISP's.
This is very interesting.
I often talk with webmasters cohort in my city. Most of us, if not all, agree that G$, though widely recognized a hi-tech company, is indeed a super maketing & PR firm. We, from our own experience, do not see any significant technical difference between G$ and Y$. Yahoo, however, also gives us the impression of lagging behind Google. We do not think it is a technical issue.
Google is just a business, and the core value of G$, forgetting about its beautiful slogan, is making $$. I personally believe G$ will be the next M$. Many folks do not like Microsoft, esp in the industry of open source. Ironically, many of them are fans of Google.
G$'s marketing and PR stories should be cases in every MBA marketing textbook.
--T.N.T
Affiliate for webmasters
<snip>
[edited by: trillianjedi at 7:00 pm (utc) on April 21, 2006]
[edit reason] TOS - no self promo or SIGS please [/edit]
