Every time Google announces its plans to open a new office in a certain country, it is said that this represents the search giant's attempts to conquer the nation. This time, the reports are concerning South Africa as the Mountain View company said it will open a new office in the country on September 3, 2007. According to SA The Good News, Google also hired Stafford Masie who also worked as a Country Manager at Novel to lead the upcoming office. It seems like the South African Google center will try to sell the company's products in the country such as search technologies or advertising solutions as well as improving the firm's image in the zone.

"The leadership and experience that Stafford Masie brings to Google will be an invaluable asset in developing our operations in South Africa. Stafford has a proven track record of success in the South African market and will accelerate our efforts to create a truly local presence for our users, partners and advertisers in the region," said Mohammad Gawdat, Google's Managing Director for Africa, for the same source.

At a quick look, you might think that Google changed its mind and abandoned China, the industry that was extremely attractive but also very repulsive for the search giant. A long time ago, the Mountain View company started the Chinese expansions but most of the attempts were rejected by the local firms or even by the consumers.

If you didn't know, the country's leader Baidu is often described as the Chinese Google because it offers almost the same products as the Mountain View company. For example, it was recently rumored that Google might get involved into the social networking battle as it partnered with some Chinese companies to work on this kind of platform. But the plans can be easily abandoned as Baidu, the Chinese leader might steal the same category of users which is also targeted by Google.