Dontbeevil.com ripped on Microsoft last June when they developed filtering technology to detect and censor subversive blog posts from China.  At the time I pointed to Google's blog post on the China Problem:

For Internet users in China, Google remains the only major search engine that does not censor any web pages. However, it's clear that search results deemed to be sensitive for political or other reasons are inaccessible within China. There is nothing Google can do about this.

According to news reports, Google will now become the last major search engine to cave in to China's censorship demands.  Google.cn will for the first time filter search results based on instructions from the Chinese government.

Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country's free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet's fastest growing market.Because of government barriers set up to suppress information, Google's China users previously have been blocked from using the search engine or encountered lengthy delays in response time.

The service troubles have frustrated many Chinese users, hobbling Google's efforts to expand its market share in a country that expected to emerge as an Internet gold mine over the next decade.

China already has more than 100 million Web surfers and the audience is expected to swell substantially _ an alluring prospect for Google as it tries to boost its already rapidly rising profits ....

To obtain the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit Web content that the country's government finds objectionable. Google will base its censorship decisons on guidance provided by Chinese government officials....

Google officials characterized the censorship concessions in China as an excruciating decision for a company that adopted "don't be evil" as a motto. But management believes it's a worthwhile sacrifice.

And Google will not offer Gmail or Blogger services at all, in order to avoid having to comply with similar requirements or to turn over user information:

Reflecting its uneasy alliance with the Chinese government, Google isn't releasing all its services.

Neither Google's e-mail nor blogging services will be offered in China because the company doesn't want to risk being ordered by the government to turn over anyone's personal information.

In past discussions on its blog and in a speech given by Sergey Brin, Google has carefully parsed their censorship rationale.  Google News China has censored its sources since it was launched, under the logic that to display headlines that are blocked by the government's firewall would make for an ugly user experience.

But until now, this logic didn't apply to Google Search.  Google was the only big search engine to deliver uncensored results.  No longer.