Google/China syndrome version 2

A new strain of cynicism has emerged:

1. why weren’t Google employees using the Google Chrome browser and operating system instead of IE and Windows; and why on earth the ancient IE6 for God’s sake? Perhaps it was a complex plot to discredit Microsoft and boost use of Chrome (certainly both Firefox and Opera reported huge download increases in the aftermath of the German and French advice to ditch IE at least for the time being).
2. Google showed remarkable gullibility and lax security controls to allow foreign national insiders to breach their systems; and they therefore deserve all they got.
3. Google engineered the whole situation so that their righteous indignation could help repair their worldwide battered ‘do no evil’ brand image.

There are elements of truth in the first two of these suggestions, although I’m not sure I would go along with the conclusions. I doubt the extent of the third; but Google would be stupid not to take the moral high ground once it had happened. Nevertheless, there is still much in this story that doesn’t add up, and we still haven’t heard the last of it.

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