In it’s 2004 Securities and Exchange Commission Registration Statement, Google included this unusual section (unusual for an SEC filing):

DON’T BE EVIL

Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. this is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.

Google users trust our systems to help them with important decisions: medical, financial and many others. Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating . . . We believe it is important for everyone to have access to the best information and research, not only to the information people pay for you to see.

This week, on June 7 and again on June 8, 2006, The Times of London quoted expressions of regret from Google’s Sergey Brin about the way his company entered the market in China, where Google reportedly agreed to pre-censor searches to filter results the government considers politically sensitive.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have all been criticized for making concessions to the Chinese government – Yahoo for providing email addresses that led to the arrest of political dissidents in China. The number of of Chinese internet users is on track to equal the number of U.S. users. Describing the potential of the Chinese market, Google’s Eric Schmidt said: "I don’t know where revenue growth will be, but it will obviously be large."

According to The Times, in April, 2006 Mr. Schmidt said, "We believe that the decision that we made to follow the law in China was absolutely the right one."

The Times report suggests now Mr. Brin is not so sure: "We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference."

Mr. Brin’s comments apparently came in the context of meetings in the U.S. capitol to talk about internet neutrality where, according to The Times, the Google co-founder admitted his company adopted "a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with," in China, adding: "Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense."

At this writing, no other news sources have corroborated The Times story. It remains to be seen whether regret turns to a change of course for Google in China. We’ll let you know what we hear…