002《经济学家》读译参考之二：龙来了.doc

1、 经济学家 读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen JilongPage 1 of 3TEXT 2 Here be dragons龙来了Jan 26th 2006From The Economist print edition Google, the internet search engine that has grown into a corporate giant, began operations in China on January 25th. Though critics suggest it has betrayed its own motto - “

2、dont be evil” - by agreeing to censor certain sites, Google maintains it will do more good than harm已经成为公司巨人的国际互联网搜索引擎Google，1 月 25 日启动了在中国的业务。尽管评论家认为，Google 违背了自己的箴言“别干坏事” ，因为它同意对一些特定的站点进行审查，但 Google 公司坚持认为这样一来将利大于弊。IN 2001 human-rights activists in China crowed that a little-known search engine ca

3、lled Google was the most important tool ever created to skirt state censors. Users could retrieve content that Beijing banned by clicking to call up a “cached” copy of the web page, stored by Google. Soon, however, Google itself was being sporadically blocked. The firm was instructed to deactivate t

4、hat particular feature, and for a short time its web address was even re-routed by Chinese network operators to the website of a local rival. 2001 年，一种鲜为人知的、名叫 Google 的搜索引擎成为那时被用来避开国家审查的最重要工具。中国人权激进分子为此而幸灾乐祸。用户可以通过点击打开由 Google 存储的“缓冲存储”网页备份，从而重新获得被政府封杀的相关内容。不过，Google 公司自己很快也被不定期关闭。该公司接到通知，要求它取消那种特定功

5、能，并且中国网络运营者甚至曾一度将该公司的网址链接改到一家中国本地搜索引擎（google 的竞争对手）上。The continual cat-and-mouse game ended this week when Google, now a corporate giant, entered the dragons den. On January 25th the search engine “G” began operations. It is a first step towards beefing up the companys local presence, which will als

6、o mean placing computer-servers in the country. This will speed up service for mainland users, who otherwise must penetrate the great firewall of China, which dramatically slows down access to G. 本周，当现已成为公司巨人的 Google 进入了“中国龙潭” ，长久以来的猫捉老鼠游戏也就结束了。1 月25 日，中文搜索引擎“G”开始运行。这是公司为加强本地化实力所迈出的第一步，也意味着公司即将把计算机服

7、务器放到中国了，如此一来可以加快为中国大陆用户的服务速度，此外也必然会穿越中国巨大的防火墙这面防火墙大大减慢了用户登录 Google 的速度。Having local infrastructure gives an advantage to Googles search-engine rivals, such as Chinas B (which enjoys around 40% of the Chinese search market, compared with Googles 30%), and Yahoo! and Microsofts MSN, which have local C

8、hinese operations. Chinas internet market, with more than 100m users, is one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative in the world. Can Googlewith its motto “dont be evil”do business in China without betraying its soul?中国地方政府部门倾向于支持 Google 在搜索引擎方面的竞争对手，比如中国百度（大约占中国搜索业市场的 40%份额，而 Google 为 30%） ，以及在中

9、国内地都有业务的雅虎、微软的 MSN。拥有 1 亿用户的中国互联网市场是全球发展最快、最富利润的市场之一。以“别干坏事”自诫的 Google 公司，用不着自食其言，能在中国做成生意吗？经济学家 读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen JilongPage 2 of 3The company is making a concerted effort to do just that. It has reached an agreement with the Chinese authorities that allows it to disclose to users, a

10、t the bottom of a list of search results, whether information has been withheld. This is similar to what the company does in other countries where it faces content restrictions, such as France and Germany (where Nazi sites are banned), and America (where it removes material that is suspected of copy

11、right infringement). Although the disclosure is more prominent on these western sites, putting such a message on its Chinese site is an important step towards transparency and, furthermore, is something its rivals do not do.Google 公司正齐心协力，就是为了“自食其言” 。他们已经与中国政府达成共识，允许其搜索结果列表底部信息向用户开放，无论是否属于禁止范围。这类似于该

12、公司在其他一些同样面临内容限制的国家中的做法，比如法国和德国（禁止纳粹站点）以及美国（疑似侵犯版权的有关材料将被删除） 。尽管在这些西方国家信息公开化要更为突出，但在 Google 中国站点上出现这一讯息是其向透明化迈出的重要一步，更为甚者，这也是某种其中国对手无法办到的事情。Furthermore, Google is tiptoeing into the country with only a handful of services. It is not offering e-mail, blogging or social-networking services, because it

13、worries that it will not be able to ensure users privacy. It wishes to avoid the situation in which MSN and Yahoo! find themselves, whereby they are forced to obey the Chinese governments orders in censoring content and revealing users identities. Rather than be placed in a position where it may hav

14、e to compromise its values, Google instead is narrowing what it offers (although its news service will contain only government-approved media sources). 而且，Google 只须提供很有限的服务，就悄悄地进入了中国市场。由于担心无法确保可以保护用户隐私，该公司并不提供电子邮件、博客以及社交网络服务。Google 公司希望自己不会落入 MSN 和雅虎如今的境地这两家公司不得不遵守中国政府关于内容审查和泄露用户身份方面的规定。Google 公司目前的

15、处境并不损及其自身利益，相反还缩减了支出费用（虽然其提供的新闻服务内容来源仅限于政府认可的新闻媒体） 。Google believes that entering China, even with restraints on content, lets it offer more information than if it remained outside. Yet the decision comes as American internet firms such as Yahoo! and MSN duck criticism that they are complicit with t

16、he Chinese authorities. Google 相信，进入中国，无论诸多内容限制，仍令其能提供比以往更多的信息。不过，当雅虎、MSN 这些美国互联网公司纷纷回避那些指责他们与中国政府串通一气的言论时，Google 公司终于下了决心。Meanwhile in AmericaFor Google, taking the higher road happens to also be a way to differentiate its service. This month Americas Department of Justice went to court to force Go

17、ogle to comply with a subpoena seeking more than 1m web addresses and a weeks worth of all users searches (down from an original demand of every web address it holds and two months of searches), albeit without any information that would identify individual users. The government wants the data in ord

18、er to examine the effectiveness of software filters to block pornography, for a case involving a law prohibiting the content, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional. 美国国内反响对于 Google 而言，向更高目标进发恰好也是一种让服务多样化的途径。1 月，美国司法部通过法庭勒令Google 公司履行之前法院发出的传票，提供一百多万个网址以及所有用户数周的使用搜索引擎记录（亦即和两个月的搜索情况） ，不过不需要确认

19、个人用户身份的相关信息。美政府之所以要这些数据，是想要检验一下打击网络色情的软件滤过性能，经济学家 读译参考 Translated & Edited by Chen JilongPage 3 of 3The government requested, and received, information from Yahoo!, MSN and AOLall of which initially stonewalled about whether they disclosed the data. Yet Google resisted, arguing that “acceding to the

20、 request would suggest it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that Google can accept.” The day the subpoena was made public, Googles shares dropped almost 9%, its largest single-day decline since it began trading in 2004.美政府要求并业已收到了来自雅虎、MSN 以及

21、AOL 提交的材料，这些公司起初对是否公布有关数据有些举棋不定。不过，Google 公司最终还是予以了拒绝，并称“谁要是同意按要求去做，就表面谁愿意泄露其用户的隐私。Google 对此感到不可思议。 ”传票公布于众的当天，Google 的股价几乎下跌了 9%，创下 2004 年上市以来最大单日跌幅。Googles stance could put commercial pressure on its rivals to adopt more customer-friendly policies, and may serve as a warning to other internet firm

22、s to treat customers data with more care. Yet such high-mindedness will be tested as Google enters China. Keeping its options open, the company is not shutting down the Chinese-language version of G. It will remain available, for those willing to wait a bit longer for their uncensored search results.从商业上看，Google 公司这一态度有可能迫使其竞争对手采取更有益于用户的政策，并且会提醒其他互联网公司在对待用户数据时要更为谨慎。然而，在 Google 进驻中国后，它的这种高尚品格将受到考验。Google 并未关闭 G 的中文界面，仍然保持着其可选性，如此一来，对于那些想搜索到未经审查的信息而宁愿网速慢一些的用户而言，仍然有路可寻。