My friend Barney has had the same problem for years.

What are the chances of Guge being owned by some distant relatives of the owners of Baidu????

Google adds themselves to the telephone directory and all is sorted?

here is that Baidu has such strong marketshare. I note that Baidu abides by China's censorship laws. It appears the Chinese don't have the a problem with the Chinese government censoring the net that others like, oh... say, u.s'ers for example.

Imagine that. A culture with different values. Whoda thunk.

Having the same name as a famous personality (if you like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), I can speak from experience and say that yes, it can sometimes be annoying, but, for the most part, you get used to it and not let it bother you. If Guge is getting phone calls for Google, all they have to do is politely say, "I am sorry, you called the wrong number". How does that interfere in their business model? Does this mean I can sue my namesake for the inconvenience of he becoming famous?

One more thing, no, Raphael's favourite colour is not green.

Why would large amounts of people be trying to telephone Google? Maybe Google should also put a contact us link on their website and then explain they don't want to be contacted by phone? Changing their name is ridiculous so I can only see this as suspicious.

I'm more inclined to believe that Beijing Guge is owned and operated by the Chinese Communist Party (like Lenovo), which has been trying to undermine (if not POISON with tainted food products) America since the 50's.

I'd like to see Google just block all communications via links to China, lets see how long that Law suit lasts.

Google.ca, for example, is NOT a canadian entity, but none-the-less, has a "fake" canadian address.

If you do a whois on google.ca, you will see a Toronto, Ontario, Canada based number. A pour lady has the same number google put on their domain. They didn't even test to see if its valid. (From when I did the article, the number was active, and in some weeks, she received 100+ calls). This was 1 year ago.

Block all communications? Isn't that china's, you know, goal?

Personally, I'd open UP all communications...THAT'll bugger them!!

A cynical ploy by lawyers to kick start their "self service industry" in China?

Guge should just alter their number to a premium rate line.

"the Chinese Communist Party (like Lenovo), which has been trying to undermine (if not POISON with tainted food products) America since the 50's."

Between McCarthy and Bush, the Americans have been doing a good job of undermining themselves without outside help.

I'd be more worried about changing my friends if they shared a name with that purple MS fanboi dinosaur.

there have been reports of now-resurgent, ex-commie countries using questionable tactics to implement protectionist policies...

remember the shell fiasco at sakhalin II?

The Chinese government love their censorship. Even to the extent of jamming Voice of America and the BBC radio. whats this got to do with the internet you ask I run a 24/7 rolling news internet station we get loads of hits from China even though we talk about what they are trying to stop their people knowing like Taiwan for example.

Why they even decided to go into China with a translated trade name is beyond me -- unless 'Google' actually translates into 'fart'.

I like it. I can see the conversation now:

"Yeah, like, right, i Guge'd it on my mobe and like, found teh Myspace"

Why don't Guge just make their phone number a £50 a minuite number and make a bit of cash off it :p

"Even to the extent of jamming Voice of America"

Given that VoA is nothing more than a propaganda network I don't see what is surprising about jamming them. How many Communist Party of China radio stations are going in the u.s.? That's right, none.

Hell they won't even allow Havana to broadcast to Florida. Freedom of speech is only for approved broadcasters.

I would be nice if you quoted the Chinese names used by the two companies instead of just saying they're similar. I realize that they're available in the linked Danwei article and this is an English publication, but it still seems a pretty important thing to leave out of an article like this.