Google will stay course on Chinese search--for now

Google co-founder Sergey Brin says the company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands, but is trying to make its censored Chinese search engine work before deciding whether to reverse direction, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

"We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference," Brin told reporters near Capitol Hill.

"Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense," the article quoted him as saying.

"It's perfectly reasonable to do something different, to say, 'Look, we're going to stand by the principle against censorship and we won't actually operate there.' That's an alternate path," Brin said. "It's not where we chose to go right now, but I can sort of see how people came to different conclusions about doing the right thing."

Brin was in Washington, D.C., to ask U.S. Senators to prevent telephone and cable companies from collecting premium fees from companies like Google for faster delivery of their services.

Also on Tuesday, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders alleged that China had cut off access to Google's main Web site, The Wall Street Journal reported. Nearly all Google customers in China use the noncensored site, Brin said.

Google has been criticized since it launched its censored search site in China in January.

Earlier in the week, a group of U.K. journalists called for a boycott of Yahoo, which is accused of providing information to China that led to the arrest of several journalists.