How blackout day missed the boat

Raise your hand if you use Wikipedia on a daily basis. Okay, now raise your hand if you know what Boing Boing is. If your hand is not up, chances are you unaware that some web sites have chosen to blackout their content today in a protest to the internet censorship bills SOPA and PIPA.

The idea behind the protest is to give people a taste of what the internet would be like if these bills were to pass.

The protest probably is effective if you use these sites on a regular basis. However, Wikipedia and Boing Boing are far from the most popular sites on the internet. Arguably the most popular and useful site on the internet -- Google -- a staunch opponent of the legislation, could only muster this lame protest:

Oh the horror! What happened to the logo? Oh wait, the search bar still works...

At least Google tried. My Twitter and Facebook pages work fine. Nowhere on either page can you find any mention of the protest or of the twin harbingers of the internet apocalypse (that is, if you don't count the tweets and updates from actual members).

Can you imagine how effective the protest would have been if these companies had taken more action?

What if gmail made you wait five minutes to login? What if Twitter and Facebook randomly blacked out tweets and status updates? People would probably amass on the steps of congress and firebomb the place.

Instead I have to wait an extra day to look up the career of Roy Orbison. That's really going to set me back.