Want to access Wikipedia during the SOPA blackout? Here’s how

Good on Wikipedia (along with other sites) for blacking out its home page today. It’s all to protest against SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) and its sister act in the Senate, PIPA. 

The blackout vividly highlights the potential censoring effect of this how this loosely-worded, heavy-handed proposed piece of legislation that would let US rights holders, with only the sniff of suspicion, target domestic and international sites they think have violated their copyright, with the likes of Google, Paypal and domain name service suppliers ordered to block access to the alleged offender. 

Wikipedia says if it one rogue link slips into its articles, its whole site could be shut down.

So: good reasons to protest. But after half a day, you might be over it.

Here’s how to access Wikipedia content if you’re desperate.

1. Open a Wikipedia article. After it loads, and blacks out, add ?banner=none to the end of the web page URL. So, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby would become http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby?banner=none

2. Go to the mobile version of Wikipedia, http://en.m.wikipedia.org/ - remember, it can be accessed through a desktop or laptop PC or tablet; you don't have to be on a phone.

3. Run a Google search for your desired Wikipedia topic any computer, then click on the cached version of the result (see screenshot below).

4. Disable Javascript on your web browser (you find an option under Settings, usually accessed from an icon top right. If you do, REMEMBER to enable it again tomorrow.

5. Access Wikipedia through a mobile device running Google Android software. For whatever reason, Android gadgets have been left off Wikipedia’s blackout list.

6. Access Wikipedia through its iPhone App. Again, it’s not covered by the blackout.

7. Access Wikipedia through an iPad, using the Safari browser, then hit the “X” on the URL bar (the one you type a web address into) just before the page finishes loading.

It's also been suggested you can simply hit the Esc key before the blackout page loads - but I haven't had any success with that tip.

Got another workaround? Leave a comment below.

(Click screenshot to enlarge.) Run a search for your desired term, for example "Rugby World Cup Wikipedia". You'll find the best results if you use Google's "site" command, which restricts a search to a single website (eg, "rugby world cup site:wikipedia.org" or - if heaven forbid this site's own search engine should misbehave - "rugby world cup site:nbr.co.nz". Note there's no space after "site".)

Hover your mouse over the most relevant result - the top one in this instance, Wikipedia's no SEO slouch - then the grey arrow that appears. Click on the option to view a cached version of the page (Google uses caching - storing copies of web pages - to speed up search results. Though it also means that deleted or since-revised versions of web pages live on in Google).