A debate is raging over Google's presence in China. But it's not what you think. Chinese Googlites have started an online petition in opposition of Google's new Chinese moniker "Gu Ge," a protest that, for certain, has gone to the dogs.
Google recently re-branded itself in China as Gu ("valley;" some say "harvest") Ge (song). But according to
NoGuge.com, a recently established protest site, Chinese dissidents are calling for a return to the popularized "GouGou" or "dog dog." Randy Jackson couldn't be happier.
"The name Guge makes us feel bad, it disappoints us," reads NoGuge.com, "Google are you listening?" (Much thanks to
IDG for the translation.)
So what they're saying is, Shakespeare's rose commentary was full of it. The rose
would stink a bit if you called it an onion.
On Google's official Chinese
blog, Google China employee Cui Jin defended the Valley Song choice. We're going to quote it from Google's translated page just for fun. Then we'll retranslate from IDG's explanation.
"In China, we " the valley song manifesto " seriously expressed " the information also has very much, we had to do were also more " faith, borrowed in one user Blog the glyphomancy good advice: " Valley song: First undergoes poverty-stricken, the latter happiness, the frost and snow plum blossom, spring is in full bloom…
"How 3. dogs dogs will later meow meow manage? The snake and the miniature pig joins, warlord tangled warfare! Fears! Google is the multi- faces, these bone ash level user, Google throughout about you, the valley song cannot substitute Google."
Not even Google, which can define wonderfully obscure words like "
heresiarch" by scouring the web, knows what "
glyphomancy" means. How that onomatopoeic (and nearly poetic) translation should have read, according to IDG:
"Gougou may sound like a cute name, but Google's Chinese name must be a company name, product name, brand name, and a Web site name; Gougou is just not appropriate."
Cui further defends the new brand name with an anecdote about her father, who can better remember where she works if Google uses the name GuGe.
Nonetheless, GouGou still leads in the online poll, followed by Goule, which means "enough."
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