I’m sure each one of you would agree that yesterday was an unprecedented day in the history of the Internet. A huge number of major sites, like Wikipedia, WordPress, WIRED, Reddit and many more were on strike protesting the draconian SOPA and PIPA acts and were blacked out as a result. Google did its part too by blacking out the logo, and directing users to their take action page in order to urge them to sign a petition telling the Congress to not censor the web.

Looks like Google’s efforts bore fruits. LA Times reports that the petition was signed by 4.5 million according to a spokeswoman for Google.

That’s a very impressive number if you were to ask me. I’m sure a far greater number of people would have visited the page but getting 4.5 million of them to take action isn’t a small feat. It has proved that the campaign against these censorship laws has been effective and there is genuine concern among people on the consequences of such a legislation on the functioning of the World Wide Web.

On another note, I’d say Google did a pretty good job with their landing page. It is neatly designed and has useful content that educates people on SOPA and PIPA. The image is appealing and the message on the sidebar is assertive enough to get people to sign the petition.

We at Google Tutor oppose SOPA and PIPA, and applaud Google and all other vanguards of the Internet economy for their drive against these stupid acts. You can still sign the petition if you haven’t yet – Take Action!