GOOGLE'S halo has lost a bit of its shine. The company that has defined itself as the champion of internet users with its slogan "Don't be evil" was slammed last week as hypocritical and self-serving for going ahead with a Chinese version of its search engine that will censor pages unpalatable to Beijing.

The critics are especially incensed because the news comes shortly after Google refused to give the US government access to search data, claiming it would violate its users' privacy. The decision to cooperate with one of the world's most repressive regimes therefore smacks of double standards, they say.

This is somewhat naive. Google may promote itself as being different to other search engines, but it is driven by commercial incentives. Giving up data to the US government would harm its brand in the US and risk damaging its market share. Likewise, refusing to cooperate with the Chinese ...