"If they are restricted in the same way then what's the difference?"
I suppose thats the other way of looking at it. All the criticism seems to be aimed at Google when even in the worst case scenario, nothing thats been reported is any worse than what the others are doing - so I have to wonder *why* google is copping all the flack.
My understanding of the situation (and this is admittedly incomplete) so far is that where Yahoo have complied with the chinese government's requests regarding handing over data on suspected dissidents (resulting in at least one arrest/disappearance), Google has stopped at simply censoring the search results.
The cynic in me believes that since Google is a geek company (compared to Yahoo or MSN who would be more business-ey) Geeks feel that Google need to answer to them and Googles ongoing insistence on behaving like an actual company with the goal of making money (while providing excellent service) and NOT bending to all geek demands about information infuriates them.
The same sort of thing seems to apply to gamers and conventions - once the staff of any enterprise is drawn from the same pool as the customers, the customers feel that the staff's status as community members outweighs their obligation to the enterprise. I reckon it could be a phenomon... cognitive dissonance or something.
