Google’s well-known corporate motto of “don’t be evil” has become a bit of a punchline in recent times. It's no longer a case of the innocent David against the ruthless Goliath (Microsoft). In fact, many have taken a more watchful eye toward the search giant, its vast ambitions and the seemingly infinite amount of data it seeks to collect about us. 
 
 This afternoon though, by standing up to censorship in China, Google reclaimed some of the mystique that once made it so special. In the growth market that everyone is after (and Google still trails significantly in), the company is putting principles ahead of profit. 
 
 Writing on the Google blog today, the company’s Senior Vice President David Drummond said, “we launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results,” a position that was met with plenty of criticism at the time. 
 
 However, now that it’s seen the breadth of Chinese censorship by way of implied state sponsored attacks and surveillance of Google products, the company has been prompted to take action, declaring in as straightforward a way as possible: “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn.” 
 
 Mind you, if Google is ultimately successful, it does stand to gain plenty –- a search engine operating in a free and open market is more profitable than one in a closed and censored one. But we think it’s unlikely that China will essentially reverse course on some of its fundamental values in a matter of weeks, and as such, Google will likely feel pain to its bottom line in the short-term, especially if competitors like Baidu, Microsoft and Yahoo don’t take a similar position. 
 
 It’s too soon to give Google a standing ovation — we’ll wait and see what kind of agreement, if any, it's able to strike with the Chinese government before full adulation. But at least for a day or two, we can once again think of Google as a company that stands for more than a never-ending quest for marketshare and profit. ||||| Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking. 
 
 In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also on Friday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving. 
 
 The signs that Google was on the brink of closing Google.cn, its local search service in China, came two months after it promised to stop bowing to censorship there. But while a decision could be made very soon, the company is likely to take some time to follow through with the plan as it seeks an orderly closure and takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by the authorities, the person familiar with its position said. 
 
 Google is also seeking ways to keep its other operations in China going, although some executives fear that a backlash from the Chinese authorities could make it almost impossible to keep a presence in the country. 
 
 When the search giant first promised to end censorship in response to what it claimed were a series of cyber-attacks mounted from inside China, many China-watchers warned that its public defiance of Beijing would provoke a stern response. 
 
 On Friday, Li Yizhong, minister for industry and information technology, said: “If [Google] takes steps that violate Chinese laws, that would be unfriendly, that would be irresponsible, and they would have to bear the consequences.” 
 
 One person close to the search company, meanwhile, said that its senior executives remained “adamant” about ending the censorship. The company has also ruled out keeping the search service going by handing majority control, or even the entire business, to a local player, this person said. 
 
 Google’s executives have made it clear that they still hope to stay in the country, whatever the fate of Google.cn. “It’s very important to know we are not pulling out of China,” Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, told the Financial Times at the time. “We have a good business in China. This is about the censorship rules, not anything else.” 
 
 The company’s other operations, which pre-date the launch of Google.cn four years ago, include its research centre in Beijing and a sales force that sells advertising on the Chinese-language Google.com search service, based outside China, to advertisers inside the country. 
 
 Mr Li encouraged Google to continue its operations in the country. “[Google] has taken 30 per cent of the Chinese search market. 
 
 “If you don’t leave, China will welcome that, if you don’t leave, it will be beneficial for the development of the internet in China.”
– Standing up to China has helped Google regain some of that "don't be evil" aura lost as the company became a behemoth, writes Adam Ostrow. By telling China it will no longer censor search results, the firm has shown that it's willing to put principles before profit, Ostrow notes in Mashable. Google is now threatening to pull out of the nation entirely because of attacks on activists' email, AP reports. It's highly unlikely that China will allow Google to operate as an unfiltered search engine, so taking a stand will almost certainly hit the company's bottom line, especially if its rivals don't follow suit, Ostrow notes. The standing ovation will need to wait until we see what kind of agreement emerges, but "at least for a day or two, we can once again think of Google as a company that stands for more than a never ending quest for market share and profit."