

Google will protest SOPA using home page - GBond
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57360223-261/google-will-protest-sopa-using-popular-home-page/?part=rss&subj=latest-news&tag=title
Google will protest SOPA using home page
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jaysonelliot
Google going dark would have been the most dramatic protest, of course, but I
applaud them for this action.

I can't imagine Google taking the financial hit that would come from going
dark for 24 hours, and I'm not certain how much more impactful that would have
been, anyway.

I wonder, though, if they plan to include the SOPA message on their results
pages as well? The Google home page is only seen by people who begin their
searches at Google.com instead of using a browser toolbar or one of the myriad
affiliate search boxes out there.

~~~
Symmetry
Even not considering financials, I'd expect at least 1 death from people
looking up medical information and not being able to get it if Google was
entirely gone for a whole day.

EDIT: Of course most reasonable people will contact a medical professional
rather than an internet search engine, that's why I guessed "at least 1"
instead of "at least a couple hundred".

~~~
jmsduran
When you have a medical emergency, you call 911 or go to the emergency room,
not peruse Q & A sites for answers.

~~~
jQueryIsAwesome
Sometimes is better to do both.

For example: Intoxication by adulterated liquor can cause strong headache and
(permanent) blindness; but if you search in Google you may find out that
drinking pure Whisky right away can neutralize its effects.

~~~
VMG
This sounds suspicious - care to cite any references?

~~~
nsr
Well, wikipedia has references in this section:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol#Toxicity>

Specifically, anything with a strong ethanol content will help, as the damage
caused by drinking methanol results from the byproducts of you body processing
the poison. The biological pathways that process methanol have a greater
affinity for ethanol, so drinking whisky (or everclear or 151) or any other
strong alcohol will keep you alive until your body has a chance to eject the
methanol as a waste product.

------
fauldsh
Tenuous link (was mentioned in the article)

I find it more astonishing that Rupert Murdoch would have the gall to say on
twitter: "So Obama has thrown in his lot with. Silicon Valley paymasters who
threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery. -"

~~~
wmeredith
It's a mix of both gall and ignorance made really dangerous with a massive
dose of power.

------
jasonjei
An easy way to show solidarity with SOPA protesters is whenever the main
Google page is loaded (not when a query is already passed to Google) is to
have it load black with some text saying how this is Internet might look like
if SOPA is passed, followed by it fading into the normal google page, with
maybe some text below the bar to contact legislators within the local area.

------
polshaw
They should replace their logo with a big black rectangle. This would get
everyone's attention (not just google.com visitors).

They don't need to commit commercial suicide by shutting off their site ('hey,
bing isn't that bad..'), but this is pretty weak.

~~~
Garbage
From the post:

 _In response to questions about how the protest link would be displayed on
the page, all Google would say is that the link would not replace the company
logo._

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rnernento
I'm starting to get the feeling tomorrow is going to be crazy. I don't think
congress is prepared for this. Their approval rating already abysmal, and I
predict this will put a LOT of people into action.

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reidmain
Looks like those tech illiterate Senators brought a knife to gun fight.

Actually it is more like they are duelling with their ammo supplier and then
are surprised when the don't have any bullets.

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SATANRULES
Anyone gone to Craigslist lately? They've put up a black wall with info about
pipa/sopa visible for 20 seconds. Then a link to the regular site appears.

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manojlds
IMO, having some notice on the home page is not a great deal at all. I rarely
every go to the Google home page. I just use the search bars on the browsers.
The rare time is to see some doodle.

Google should go dark like Wikipedia. That will have the biggest impact, and
of course, the impact will be much bigger than the Wikipedia black out.

~~~
cosmez
do you think of yourself as an average computer user? almost everyone i know
use google's homepage as their personal homepage.

Of course it will have an impact, just like a normal doodle

------
jebblue
Wonder if Google and Wikipedia would consider going dark to show support for
the right legislation to stop online thieves.

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rometest
now it will be like who will do the blackout next. Facebook, twitter, yahoo,
aol etc

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nextparadigms
So what will Bing do tomorrow?

~~~
baddox
I doubt anyone will check.

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sebphfx
something more original: Google should put their background black and leave
the text black,so people would have to highlight the text to be able to see.
It would be like trying to find candles in a real blackout!

------
Kroms
This makes me uncomfortable. The implications of a corporation - especially a
corporation as big as Google - being actively involved in politics are scary.
You may find yourselves cheering for them now, but what about the day Google
is involved in something against your interests or political views? This move
makes that a possibility.

~~~
Pewpewarrows
I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you, but corporations are the leading
driving force behind almost all of USA's politics. I can count on one hand the
number of Representatives and Senators combined that have NOT been bought and
paid for by giant corporations. The same goes for non-trivial pieces of
legislation passing through either the House or Senate with corporate
sponsorship.

~~~
hammerdr
Just a minor correction:

It is pretty widely accepted hypothesis that politicians do not "corrupt" when
they are elected to office but that corporations support politicians which
favor their positions. Politicians that have money have legitimacy. Legitimate
candidates get elected.

Couple that with the fact that corporations often donate to 50+ candidates (on
both sides of the aisle) and not only do they have a pre-polling vote (through
money) but they also get to play in many elections.

It's the house vs. the people and the house always wins.

~~~
asdfasdghasdf
If you can produce evidence that a corporation has donated to even one
candidate, much less 50, the FEC would love to speak to you; it's illegal for
corporations to donate to candidates.

~~~
packetslave
Ever heard of a PAC?

~~~
asdfasdghasdf
Not only have I heard of PACs, but I've given to my employer's PAC, which than
donated money to the campaigns of 50+ candidates.

I don't know if you've participated in the system, but it's not fair to equate
that with a corporation donating its own money to a political campaign.

------
SarahSmiles
Weak. Google should participate in the blackout.

Twitter seems to not care about SOPA, but Google claims to be actively working
against SOPA - they should walk the walk if they are going to talk the talk.
With this "message" on their homepage (which as jaysonelliot pointed out is
not even seen by many people) they get the branding of being in support of an
open web but don't have to actually take action the way Wikipedia, Boing
Boing, etc are going to.

Just window dressing from the PR department. Disappointing but not at all
surprising.

~~~
mdwrigh2
> With this "message" on their homepage (which as jaysonelliot pointed out is
> not even seen by many people)

How is 64% of their traffic (89 million visitors in 2009)[1] not "many
people"?

[1]: [http://blog.compete.com/2009/04/21/home-page-visitors-top-
pu...](http://blog.compete.com/2009/04/21/home-page-visitors-top-publisher-
sites/)

~~~
SarahSmiles
Wow I am surprised by that. I stand corrected, my apologies. That is what I
get for taking anecdotal experience and extrapolating ;) I can't remember the
last time I went to Google.com, but evidently heaps of people go there.

But I stand by my opinion that this is a weak response from Google.

~~~
joshuahedlund
Not only do lots of people still visit google.com, but the types of people who
still visit it are precisely the types of people who need to learn about this
law. I suspect those of us savvy enough to use a toolbar are
disproportionately more likely to already know about and oppose the bill,
while the kinds of people that go to google.com to search for 'facebook.com'
are disproportionately more likely to know nothing about it yet.

~~~
LisaG
The kinds of people that go to Google.com are also the kinds of people who
don't fully understand the repercussions of a law like SOPA. Google not
working would drive home the message to them. They could learn about SOPA from
an informational page like the one Wikipedia is going to put up during the
blackout.

~~~
awj
No, the kinds of people that go to google.com are the kinds of people who
would assume "the internet broke" if google.com looked dramatically different
when they loaded it. They may even need someone to point out to them that
Google is actively taking a stance on it, despite having seen the page.

