Google has apparently made a big mistake in Japan in a classic case of culture clash. They released some historical maps via Google earth, that showed the living locations of an ancient caste called the Burakumin. These were a lower caste of people in japan who had jobs involving close contact with dead bodies.
Stats from Hitwise for January 2009 paint an interesting picture of Google’s dominance over world markets. While Google takes over 70% of all U.S. searches and seems to show no signs of stopping its mammoth growth compared to, say, Yahoo Search (with just under 20% of the search market), the situation is nearly reversed in Japan. There, Yahoo is still leading and growing much faster than any of its competitors, according to comScore. Like some sort of alternate universe, Yahoo! Japan holds sway over 51% of all searches in Japan, versus just under 40% for Google. Apparently Yahoo!