Power corrupts

Angry Chinese Blogger sees a storm brewing:

"Pro sovereignty groups on the disputed island of Chinese-Taiwan took their fight for international recognition to the gates of search engine giant Google this week, further raising the stakes in the already tense relationship between the islands administration and Beijing, which claims the island as its own, as well as raising questions as to the wisdom of their actions given Google’s relationship with Beijing, and Beijing’s tendency to view separatist activity as being an aggressive gesture.

"In a formal representation from Taipei, lawmakers from the islands de facto government urged American tech giant Google to amend maps stored in its Google Maps service, which name the island as being a province of China, to instead name it as being a sovereign entity."

Once just a humble search engine, Google has emerged as a serious global player, taking on Microsoft and establishing a massive online library.

We should always be cautious when any company becomes too powerful. Microsoft knows a few things about smashing competition. The EU saw it behaving like an "abusive monopolist."