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The decision has been made – Google is no longer willing to to censor its search results in China.

Pinning the decision on the cyber attacks they announced on January 12, and “attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web…” Chinese Google users will now be redirected from Google.cn to Google.com.hk – which displays uncensored search results in simplified Chinese. David Drummond. Google’s SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, notes this move “is entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.”

That is, of course, until the Chinese government just pulls the plug on the whole deal.

This move by Google is bizarrely curious to me in the way they are attempting to circumvent the Chinese government’s mandate. Whether or not you support the Chinese in their censorship efforts, Google is taking a moral stance with this – and telling the Chinese government that their policy is, effectively, wrong. At least in the eyes of nameless Google Execs.

Why not just stop serving search results to people in mainland China? I mean, why take a moral stance on something just to back it up with actions deemed immoral by those governing the people to whom you’re providing the service.

Oh, that’s right – shareholders.

From where I’m standing, this tête-à-tête resembles Google’s policy on building links – you can violate the rules laid out by Google (say, purchasing links), and with that you accept the fact they might just pull the plug on your website for “being evil.” The problem is not everyone agrees on the definition of “paid link”. Some folks would see any kind of sponsorship which includes a link back to the sponsor website as qualifying for a paid link – and nofollow treatment. Others think paid links are only evil if they’re used in an attempt to manipulate search results. The bottom line is we’re playing in their pool, and they make the rules.

We SEOs, on average, make more noise than “norms” online because we understand the web, and are extraordinarily well connected to one another. Some folks in the SEO world can even make one of the worlds most powerful marketers stop and pay attention. We also, on one level or another, see Google as a bit of an enemy, hiding its secret ranking recipe deep in the nutritional information guide of public relations and FUD.

Couple all these factors with the valid and varied criticisms of Google, and the stuff Eric Schmidt has recently flippantly spit out regarding privacy on the web, and it’s pretty clear Google has the makings of a potential major shift in public opinion.

Google needs to move it’s morality alignment from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral in a hurry, and nothing unites like a common enemy – so it would appear they are making an enemy of oppressing access to information, which aligns perfectly with both their corporate ethos and ad serving platform.

Often decision making isn’t so much about the end result as much as convincing yourself you made the right decision in the first place, and that’s what has me so bothered about this move. Google simply refuses to admit it was wrong of them to censor Chinese search results in the first place, and is attempting to make up public relations ground with a hackneyed stab at capitalizing on the Chinese market while flying it under the tattered line of “access to information.”

Don’t be evil Google – if censorship is evil stop serving search results (and ads) in China.