Finally it happened. Google has agreed to blur sensitive military and goverment buildings in India from Google earth. This follows discussions between Google executives and Indian beaurocrats. Surprisingly, simple blurring of images was acceptable to the Indian side.

BBC report says,

In a statement the search giant said: “Google has been talking and will continue to talk to the Indian government about any security concerns it may have regarding Google Earth.

“We are pleased to have initiated dialogue with the Indian government, the discussions have been substantive and constructive, but no agreements have been made.”

It added: “We have committed to continue the dialogue”.

In fact Google had no other option. They will have to continue with the censorship. Indians are too happy to ban Websites which are considered harmful to national integrity. Last year major blog sites such as blogspot and free hosting providers such as geocities were completely blocked by Indian ISPs on government order. It took sometime before the ban was revoked.

Indian president Abdul Kalam (who considers himself a geek) expressed his displeasure with Google earth many times before. He was of the opinion that Google earth may be used by terrorists to plan and execute attacks on Indian installations!