Google to launch search business in China

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the Internet giant is open to returning its search business to China, if it could be done right, he told an industry conference.

互联网巨头谷歌的首席执行官桑达尔·皮查伊在行业会议上表示，如果一切顺利，谷歌将重新向中国开放搜索业务。

"If we can do it in the right and thoughtful way, we are always open to it," said Pichai at the Code conference here. "I care about serving consumers everywhere."

"如果我们能妥善处理相关事宜，谷歌非常希望能重返中国，"皮查伊在Code大会上说。"我希望看到谷歌的服务遍布全世界的每一个角落。"

Google pulled out of mainland China and moved its Chinese-language search engine to Hong Kong in 2010 after a series of cyber attacks on Google originated in the country. Google also said it would stop censoring search results in China.

2010年，在遭受一系列网络攻击之后，谷歌退出中国大陆，将中文搜索的业务转向香港。谷歌公司还表示将停止在中国审查搜索结果。

The controversial move cut Google off from the fast-growing Chinese market, one that's been courted by rival Facebook and constitutes the second-biggest market for Apple.

发展迅速的中国市场一直受到竞争者脸书的青睐，也是苹果公司的第二大市场。因此，谷歌的退出引起了众多争议。

Last year, tech-industry news site The Information reported Google was seeking Chinese approval of its Google Play app store. Much of Pichai's session at Code was devoted to Google's development of artificial intelligence for voice-activated searches. Pichai said Google sensed a shift in what it could do three to four years ago, performing more effective voice searches, and transitioned.

去年，技术行业的新闻网站The Information报道称，谷歌正在寻求中国对谷歌应用程序商店的批准。皮查伊在Code大会上的谈话主要涉及到谷歌研发语音搜索的人工智能技术。皮查伊表示，谷歌在三四年前才意识到语音搜索的有效性，所以改变了发展战略。

"We saw significant step changes," he said. "We felt the inflection point and made a big shift internally."

"我们从中看到巨大的机会，"他说。"我们认为这是一个拐点，并在公司内部进行了重大改变。"

Now one out of every five searches are done via voice, instead of keyboard typing, and Pichai expects that to greatly grow over the next years.

不用键盘打字而使用语音搜索的公司还不到五分之一。皮查伊预计，未来几年，语音搜索将呈现大幅增长。

"We've been doing it longer," he said, without answering the question specifically. "People have been asking questions to Google for a long time."

"我们研究的时间比较长，"皮查伊并没有明确地回答问题。"很长时间以来，人们都在谷歌上提问问题。"

Still, he agreed with a comment made by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at Code: "When it comes to machine learning and AI, it is still early days for all of us."

亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯在Code大会上说："说道机器学习和人工智能，所有公司都还处于初期阶段。" 皮查伊对他的话表示认同。

Google will release a voice-activated speaker, Google Home, similar to Amazon's Echo, later this year. Pichai said it will be different because it will play to Google's strengths. "We will be building a true conversational device."

今年晚些时候，谷歌将会推出与亚马逊的Echo类似的智能语音设备Google Home。皮查伊表示，Google Home的不同在于具有谷歌的优势。"我们将会配置真正的对话设备。"

He reminded that Google wasn't always first to release a product. There were search engines before Google, e-mail before Gmail and mapping before Google Maps. "You take the long view and bring your strengths to it. This is the heart of what we do."

皮查伊说，谷歌不总是第一个发布产品的公司。在谷歌之前就有搜索引擎，在Gmail之前就有电子邮件，在谷歌地图之前就有地图。"从长远考虑，发挥自己的优势。这就是我们的核心。"

Privacy, which has been a recent concern as voice-activated and "always listening" assistants get more sophisticated, could be addressed by smarter controls, Pichai said. For instance, a user could ask Google to take away the past four hours.

皮查伊表示，随着语音控制和"时刻倾听"功能的日益复杂化，隐私问题引起广泛关注，但人工智能技术能够解决隐私的泄露问题。比如，用户可以使用谷歌删除过去四小时的记录。