Prague Twin

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Yahoo! I'm off to Prison!

Reuter's reports that Yahoo! may have helped get another Chinese dissident jailed. Since we are all "internet writers" we should stand in solidarity with these jailed dissidents and put pressure on Yahoo! to cease providing information to the Chinese authorities.

What is really funny is that Yahoo! picked up the story themselves.

Nevertheless, it may be time for a boycott. If so, we would have to boycott Google as well, which I'm not sure is even possible at this point. Yahoo! and Google have turned into such huge, powerful forces, it may be as impossible to boycott them. Whether or not a boycott is in order, we should consider if an alternative for Google is something to be desired. They have almost become the Ma Bell of the internet. Time for some competition.

posted by Praguetwin at 5:14 PM

9 Comments:

  • A boycott against these companies would be simple, and wouldn't necessarily have to involve not using their services. They make money through advertising. Schedule a day, a week or longer where you get as many people as you can to agree not to click on any of their advertising and the pressure from the companies that pay them should be enough to get them to change their ways. Better yet, convince people in China to do it and you're even more likely to get results.

    By Blogger Mark, at 5:38 AM  

  • I like it!

    I'm on Blogger.com, so it would be really funny to see the reaction of Google when someone they are providing a free service to starts a boycott against them.

    By the way, thanks for your warm welcome to the group. It is very much appreciated. :)

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 12:16 PM  

  • Great title. I think it would be fairly easy to not use Google or Yahoo! search engines. They're the most ubiquitous, but there are other search engines out there, and I've never seen that much difference between them. And yeah, getting people not to click on their ads should have an impact.

    By Blogger Tom Harper, at 4:34 AM  

  • You're quite welcome.

    And if you decide to act on this, or even start a blogroll if you know how, I'd be sure to join you for the ride.
    :-)

    The worst thing that could happen would us being shut down, and then that'd just prove our point.

    By Blogger Mark, at 8:01 AM  

  • Thanks Tom.

    Stephanie,

    I think I'm going to go for it.

    Thanks for your support and I will be in touch regarding going forward with this idea.

    If they shut us down, then we would really have a story. They wouldn't dare.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 9:20 AM  

  • :-)
    Let me know when you're ready to launch!

    By Blogger Mark, at 9:30 AM  

  • So I found this group that already had the idea.

    It doesn't mean it couldn't be done again.

    A week would be better than a day, I think.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 10:25 PM  

  • Yeah, I'd prefer to do something a bit classier and not so, well, child-like. "They're SO going steady" just isn't something I could easily attach my name to.

    Besides, I think a "We're going to do this until you change your policy" kind of attitude would have a bit more oomph to it.

    Something like, "No clicks until you stop being d----!" Okay, see now the kids are rubbing off on me!
    ;-)

    By Blogger Mark, at 5:30 AM  

  • Yea,

    Good points. They actually put the thing together pretty well, but the theme was really bad. No love for Google on Valentine's Day, and the symbol really hurt: the "I heart Google" with the slashed red circle indicating "no". Painful to look at.

    I think you are right that it should be continuous, as any good movement is. It starts small, grows organically, and if it is worthwhile, it will take roots.

    I'm going to spend some time researching over the next week or so.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 12:01 PM  

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