Hey boys and girls. Everyone seems to be freaking out that the mighty Wikipedia is down for a few hours. Despite the fact that we lived without it for centuries, I still feel it is my duty to liberate the frightened masses from their debilitating terror in the face of this unmitigated disaster. Let me just say right here I am not talking about trying to get a screen shot in the split second before the block comes up! I am talking about an actual work around.
Also throwing their hat into the protest ring are web giants such as Google:
As well as Reddit:
A larger list can be viewed here: List of sites protesting SOPA.
Back to the Wikipedia work around. There is an easy way to get to the actual content you need – at least at the time of this post.
First, let’s say you just have know where that word “Bazinga” your nerdy co-workers are using came from. So you go to Google and type in “bazinga wikipedia”:
You click the link and after seeing the content for split second, you are then presented with the blacked out version of Wikipedia. Oh! The humanity!
So all you have to do is hover over the result with your mouse – notice the little gray-ish box that appears to the right:
And notice the “Cached” link? (NOTE: I am logged in to Google, and using Google Chrome.)
Click it! And quicker than you can say “Bazinga!” you have actual wikipedia results.
“But” you say … “it’s a cache version! Is that just as good?” Look closer:
Unless you want a result that was updated 5 minutes ago, you’re probably good to go. Besides, wouldn’t you turn to a news blog for content that fresh? Of course you would.
So there it is, how to view actual Wikipedia results during the blackout. This article is part help tip, and part beacon of hope for all those frightened by the thought of internet censorship. How so? Even if it happens, there will always be innovative people to help others get around it. There are already Firefox plugins to counteract SOPA as well as other resources in case it goes through. So don’t freak out! We’ll probably be ok.
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