Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Wednesday, August 1st, 2018. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, Google has a secret plan to return to China, the Apple earnings analysis you've been waiting for,

Masioshi Son goes brandless, and in praise of microfilm.

Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Even more than taking the explicit words don't be evil out of its mission statement,

this news is possibly the biggest indication that Google is now a different company that it once was,

or at least it might be willing to

tolerate things that it didn't use to. The Intercept is reporting that

according to sources it has spoken to as well as leaked internal documents they

have seen, Google is planning to launch a

censored version of its search engine in China. In case you weren't aware, for a long

time Google hasn't been accessible in China because it is blocked by the country's

famous great firewall and for years Google has made it a point of pride that it would

not play ball with China's censorship regime because to do so would run counter to its core

mission of organizing the world's information and making it freely accessible

to all. China also censors the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and others to varying degrees by the way.

But apparently there is an internal project codenamed Dragonfly, which has been underway at Google since the spring of last year

to create a version of the search engine that would blacklist websites and search terms relating

to things like human rights, democracy, and peaceful protest.

Specifically, Google has apparently been developing a customized Android app that has even been demonstrated

to the Chinese government.

If the government signs off, the final version could launch in six to nine months.

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