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Google Joins PIPA/SOPA Protest Tomorrow

Tomorrow thousands of websites will protest the pending PIPA/SOPA anti-piracy bills.

Wikipedia, Reddit and many others will do a blackout, and many other sites will organize similar protests.

Today, Google announced that it will take part as well.

The search engine will not go dark completely, but instead it will put a link on its homepage to inform users about the threat these bills pose.

“We oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” a Google spokeswoman said.

“So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our US home page.”

It is no secret that Google is opposing PIPA/SOPA.

According to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt the bills would “criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself.”

“Their goal is reasonable, their mechanism is terrible. They should not criminalize the intermediaries. They should go after the people that are violating the law,” he added.

google dark

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  • http://twitter.com/MAFIAAFire MAFIAAFire

    Finally the big G steps up to the plate!
    Good job G, lets make tomorrow Black Wednesday!

  • DannyUfonek

    Great! Now anyonewho tries to use Google tomorrow won’t be able to and will read about the proposed laws limiting the internet, great way to spread information about the issue. Thanks Google.

    • IDIOCRACY

      read it again…..

    • http://twitter.com/Cazzzababez Carwyn Stephen

      People will still be able to use the website, read the damn article before commenting.

  • townie2

    i was hoping big guns like Google would join this. a total 24 hour shutdown would have been better, but this is better than nothing at all.

    • http://www.facebook.com/hopeyoufsckingdie Hope You Die

      Barely better than nothing. How many people actually goto google’s main page to search as opposed to doing so from a search bar in their browser? Not going dark is pointless and cheap, they clearly don’t care that much for the cause.

      • http://www.twitter.com/echoman74 echoman

        Don’t hate google so much .Atleast they are taking a step being the number one site on the web according to alexa.com just don’t expect FACEBOOK to do anything. And twitter ceo already mentioned he thinks it’s a foolish idea.

      • truth

        google has stockholders. I’m sure they’d want to go dark but they can’t.

      • Kiklion

        Most non-techies still use IE and go to google.com first to search. Most techies know about the issue of sopa/pipa.

      • John2

        stfu and sit down, Google stood up…

        • http://www.facebook.com/hopeyoufsckingdie Hope You Die

          At best, Google leaned forward.

      • ayman

        I can assure you the majority of non-tech people doesn’t even notice this search bar either in Firefox or chrome!

      • Thank Goodness

        If they went completely dark, a lot of small businesses, like the one I work for, wouldn’t be able to do anything. I work for a small nonprofit school that provides free actor training to low income inner-city students, and all of our information is saved on gmail, google docs, google calendar, etc. I was scared when I saw they were participating in the blackout, because I thought I wouldn’t be able to work. It wouldn’t just be stockholders suffering a blackout day. It’d be small people. I’m glad they aren’t shutting down completely.

        • ThatName

          No offense, but that’s exactly what would get people even more motivatied to go.. WTF?

  • http://www.twitter.com/echoman74 echoman

    Thanks Google now if only they did it with youtube aswell have mercy lol. A moment and I’m/we are all a part of it.

  • Anonymous

    Cool to see some big fish jump on board. Every little bit helps.

  • SoraChanLove

    Good for google through I would through prefer them to blackout, but this is fine.

  • http://twitter.com/BarryCarey Matthew Carey

    I’m glad they’re taking a step but this won’t do much. They should shut down search and leave all their other products open. If no one had access to Google search for a whole day they would go mad. Google has the power to make the biggest statement, aside from Facebook.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sean-Mcintier/1146574107 Sean Mcintier

    Awesome. Even though mot people just use their search bar, Google is the biggest site on the internet, and I’m sure at least a few hundred thousand people will click the link and be educated.

  • http://tinyurl.com/ANoiXioNA-personal-info ANoiXioNA

    @Ninja
    Looks like you have a lot of tongue biting to do……Me…. I’ll have to eat my hat…..

    Google are in ….. I am so glad to be wrong about believing they where out

  • http://plankhead.com Zacqary Adam Green

    A link on the homepage is wonderful. That’s the same tactic which made the Nexus One into the best-selling smartphone of all time.

    • http://travismccrea.com Travis McCrea

      I am with you Zac, and honestly, I am glad they didn’t shut down search. Google is a fundamental infrastructure for navigating around the internet unless you use a competitor (which I don’t feel are nearly as good).

      I wonder how many critically important things people Google a day? If there was a breakin to my house, the first thing I would do is go to Google and find the number to my local police department (911 isn’t really for break-ins, unless you feel the person might still be there).

      I am not saying it happens often, but I am sure there has been at least one guy out there who has googled “Numbness in my arm and pain in my chest” or something and found out they were having a heart attack.

      It’s highly important.

      • http://plankhead.com Zacqary Adam Green

        Very true. It’s important that searches continue functioning. And furthermore, it’s important to put any unrelated information on the homepage underneath the search bar, where nobody will pay any attention to it.

        I mean, we wouldn’t want to clog up the top section of the search results page with extraneous links to things that people weren’t searching for. That’s what ads are for.

  • Rekrul

    They should have created a blacked out front page and made people click an extra link to go to the actual search page. As it is, most people will just think that they just decided to change the color scheme. Only a small fraction of people will pay any attention to the link.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_34VQ3NDNOFFUF6R7ALXY6O33S4 Cal

    Google wimped out. They should go nuclear and black out the site entirely tomorrow.

  • Chasatonga

    Google has all but copped out. So long as searches continue to work, who cares if information is available. Shame on you, Google. Put your muscle where your stated belief lies. Cowardly indeed!

  • http://plankhead.com Zacqary Adam Green

    Turns out they did a censored-logo doodle as well. At least people seem to notice those.

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  • ThisName

    I wish they would have blacked out, any search (toolbars etc.) being redirected to a site saying “This is what can happen if you let it…”

    Then simply having a continue to your destination at the bottom….

  • drick

    Can i sign if i’m from another country outside the US if i don’t have a valid US ZIP code?

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