Sergey Brin’s latest comment on China is certainly interesting. This is how he explained Google’s decision to launch a censored service at google.cn, reported by Times Online:

“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.”

And then he continues:

“Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense.”

This is something quite uncommon; a large corporation publicly discussing a change in position on a question where it has been heavily criticized but has yet to change its position.

We don’t know if this was planned or not. Maybe he just slipped, or maybe he launched a “test balloon” to gather reactions. Maybe he likes to chat about ethics.

It comes at an interesting time as China just decided to shut down access to the uncensored version of Google (as has been reported at numerous sites). Expect some media focus.

I still think they were right to launch in China. But it doesn’t mean it will be right under all circumstances. That’s why they should get some credit for continuing to evaluate their decisions. And for being open about it.