I heard some people at a coffee shop today discussing the possibility of convincing facebook and google to shut down all of their services for a day because of SOPA, including google apps. While the anarchist in me was momentarily giddy at the whole idea, the realist makes me assume that there must be SLAs and service contracts for their commercial customers and their larger content providers and advertising partners. As awesome as it would be for Google to shut down everything and confuse the heck out of the world I'm sure the losses due to lawsuits and SLA fines would be massive.
I really doubt Google would do this, not just because of potential contracts or even the lost revenue but mainly because of how tentative their market share is.<p>The only thing locking most people into Google search is <i>habit</i>. If Google were to not work for a day, a ton of people would start using Bing and friends; a significant proportion of these would indubitably continue using them forever. Most people don't really care about which engine they use--until it fails. Once it fails, they'll flail around for a bit then use somebody else.<p>I think the damage to Google's reputation and market share would be too big for them to consider killing search for a day. I could see them doing a doodle or something though.
I doubt they'll really black it out. However, I could see them doing a doodle or something like that.<p>Or maybe they could have something that draws black censor bars all over random words in your results that fade away after a few seconds and put up a link explaining what's wrong? That would be relatively easy, especially for Google.
If Google wanted to do something visible they just have to flip the search page to a black background. Doesn't affect access to products but people will certainly notice.
Wouldn't there be lawsuits against Google when content is taken down to comply with SOPA and other anti-Internet bills? Not to mention extra costs in complying, both in reputation loss and revenue.<p>I believe they will run it by the legal team anyway.
If Google shut off only it's search in protest of SOPA, wouldn't they run into anti-trust issues? I know technically, there's still Bing, but since they command the majority of the market, isn't this essentially the same as Rockefeller's give oil away for free to harm competition? Now, for sake of argument, the competition could be defined as any web company that happens to be pro-sopa, and Google's shutting down search could be viewed as malicious acts against a competitor ... you see where I'm going with this. IANAL.<p>Screw SOPA! If we lose this, we lose the internet... and we built the damn thing... each in our own small way.
I don't think Google would do a complete or even extensive blackout but I don't think SLAs would be the deciding factor (if Google has (m)any). I suspect if there was semi-consensus internally for Google to do something, it would figure out a clever way to participate.<p>This is why something like HackerNews deciding to participate matters. Not because of the HN audience but because of the momentum needed to get the bigger guys to go along.
I don't think a Google blackout would be a good thing. They already make many Doodles for their home page. They can make one for SOPA to raise awareness.
If Google does indeed do a complete blackout, it will cause chaos. Many people pay for Google services, many people use Google APIs. Then again a draconian bill like SOPA / PIPA may call for drastic measures such as a Google blackout.<p>I do feel that Google (along with other major Internet companies) should take a more active approach in opposing SOPA.
I think their most effective move would be to black out google.com search, because that's what most people see. I see diminishing returns in shutting down their advertising and enterprise services.
Separate from contractual issues, the cost in terms of lost revenue for Google would be enormous. I suspect Google would have more of a positive effect donating a day's profits to the right organizations/candidates.<p>This 'race-to-imagine-the-most-widespread-blackout' can make people giddy, with thoughts of solidarity and grand symbolic gestures. But giddy is not necessarily effective or lasting.<p>Shoot for an obtrusive anti-SOPA Google doodle – with links to both examples of government-takedowns gone-mad worldwide, and ways to fight SOPA. That'd make more sense (and might convince more 'normals') than a showy bit of profit-destroying self-flagellation.
They are obviously not going to willingly violate any SLAs. Also the gov't is never going to shut down Google. Their site being offline would not be an accurate preview of any blackouts to come. SOPA is going to cost google money and headaches because they will have to deal with so many upset users. It is our websites that don't have billions of dollars that are actually under threat of being completely shutdown.