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Well, this makes me an even more enthusiastic Google user.

Not only do they show at least some humanity (which is hard for a company of their size), but they've also got big balls.

It's interesting that while this may be a PR spin, few companies would have done it because the risks are much higher than the potential gains for shareholders.

Why does it take big balls to pull out of a market you're losing in?

"Losing" and "winning" aren't terribly relevant in a market. "Profitable" and "not profitable" are much more important. That's not really an answer to your question, but I've never understood why people think it's such a big deal that Google's not the biggest search engine in China.

Well, you have to admit that google's investors have a notion of how well it will be able to transfer its business to developing markets... and so with all its advantages if google can't take first place in china, what does that say about its fundamental ability in non-us markets?

I'd say that the perception that google will dominate search in worldwide markets is worth about $200 per share right now.

Google doesn't dominate every market, but I think they're doing quite well:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/03/googles-market-shar...

and

http://www.artofseobook.com/search-engine-market-share-by-co...

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