I’d like to inquire of readers whether they think I should use Google’s Adsense ad program or not. I want to get some revenue from this blog eventually, since I’ve put substantial content on it and would like to more easily afford to do so in the future.

The main argument for using Adsense is that it’s supposed to provide more ad revenue than the competition.

The main argument against using it is that it’s owned by Google, which currently operates a search engine site in China, google.cn, that censors Internet search results by removing web sites that are on a Chinese government blacklist.

I recently examined the issue by reading an April 23 New York Times Magazine article, “Google’s China Problem (and China’s Google Problem), by Clive Thompson.” Some of the information in the article has me leaning against using Adsense, particularly this quote about the role of private companies in censorship:

The Chinese system relies on a classic psychological truth: self-censorship is always far more comprehensive than formal censorship. By having each private company assume responsibility for its corner of the Internet, the government effectively outsources the otherwise unmanageable task of monitoring the billions of e-mail messages, news stories and chat postings that circulate every day in China. The government’s preferred method seems to be to leave the companies guessing, then to call up occasionally with angry demands that a Web page be taken down in 24 hours. “It’s the panopticon,” says James Mulvenon, a China specialist who is the head of a Washington policy group called the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. “There’s a randomness to their enforcement, and that creates a sense that they’re looking at everything.”

I also came across some information in the article that might support an argument for doing business with Google. It discusses a Chinese blogger, Zhao Jing, and his views on the major American companies that have self-censored Chinese search engine sites:

He ranked the companies in order of ethics, ticking them off with his fingers. Google, he said, was at the top of the pile. It was genuinely improving the quality of Chinese information and trying to do its best within a bad system. Microsoft came next; Zhao was obviously unhappy with its decision, but he said that it had produced such an easy-to-use blogging tool that, on balance, Microsoft was helping Chinese people to speak publicly. Yahoo came last, and Zhao had nothing but venom for the company.

“Google has struck a compromise,” he said, and compromises are sometimes necessary. Yahoo’s behavior, he added, put it in a different category: “Yahoo is a sellout. Chinese people hate Yahoo.” The difference, Zhao said, was that Yahoo had put individual dissidents in serious danger and done so apparently without thinking much about the human damage. (Yahoo did not respond to requests for comment.) Google, by contrast, had avoided introducing any service that could get someone jailed. It was censoring information, but Zhao considered that a sin of omission, rather than of commission.

Google, I should add, does not run a blogging or email business from China for fear that it would have to hand over to the Chinese government private information that might be used against Chinese citizens.

Having written this entry, I’m learning towards no Adsense. What do you think? What other ad company could I use? Amazon?

I should add that my wife thinks I should have no ads at all. Despite her opinion, I’m planning on adding some.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 1:39 pm and is filed under About Northern Letter, Politics.