Kai-Fu Lee, head of Google's China operations, resigned on Friday. This brings to a close four years of controversy, as the search engine giant censored its search results in order to pick up some market share in the largest internet market in the world (by population).

The change follows fresh debate within Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) -- which claims to live by the motto "don't be evil" -- about whether to exit the Chinese market. The internal discussion is the result of another round of conflict with government authorities in China.

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) CEO Robin Li has high hopes for Phoenix Nest, his company's new advertising system. While many investors worried that Phoenix Nest, launched in April, would negatively impact revenue, Li thinks that the system will actually boost sales over the longer term.

In an interview with Dow Jones, Li confessed that revenue has suffered modestly since the launch of Phoenix Nest, primarily due to the fact that Baidu has been offering advertisers incentives to switch to the new system. However, he added, "Going forward, Phoenix Nest will have meaningful positive impact to our revenue."