Normally, one would think that deliberately crippling a web site and blocking users from content would be a good way to bring down traffic numbers.

In the case of Wikipedia, however, a forced outage has actually improved traffic numbers.

The crowd-sourced encyclopaedia took its English-language servers offline on Wednesday, as part of a protest against the US SOPA and PIPA legislations. Rather than access Wikipedia pages, users were taking to a special page explaining why the company was choosing to block its site for the 24-hour period.

It seems users more than noticed the protest. Traffic analysis from security firm ZScaler suggests that more people than usual are accessing the site.

According to ZScaler, total traffic numbers to the site are up, but with users spending less time on the site and accessing fewer articles, total bandwidth usage is down.

"More people are flocking to Wikipedia today, but just to see the protest page and some details on SOPA," ZScaler said.

"This behaviour could be described as 'online rubber necking'.

The blackout is part of a larger effort by web publishers to raise awareness of the controversial SOPA bills – a protest that appears to be working. After being condemned by President Obama, the bills have been pulled from vote and many of the original sponsors are beginning to pull out amid pressure from voters.

Yet another Bay Area police department is facing scrutiny over its close ties to Apple's in-house investigations.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) has said it will conduct an internal investigation of a search on a home in the city's Bernal Heights district in July.

The search, which targeted 22 year-old Sergio Calderón, was originally believed to have been carried out by Apple's private investigators.

When reports surfaced alleging that the investigators had impersonated officers, the SFPD stepped forward and said that several plain clothes officers had assisted with the operation, although only Apple investigators had entered and searched the home.

The SFPD maintains that accompanying private investigators on searches is a standard procedure and safety measure, but the incident will no doubt draw close scrutiny, in large part because it is not the first time Apple has appeared to use local authorites as its private security force.

Last year, police in San Mateo county were investigated for their involvement in the loss of a prototype iPhone 4 which culminated in a raid on the home of a Gizmodo editor.

The incidents raise an interesting question for police departments. On one hand they are helping to retrieve stolen property and prevent the trafficking of valuable intellectual property, on the other they risk a mountain of bad publicity and backlash if they appear to be helping a multi-billion dollar corporation harass and violate the rights of the very citizens they are sworn to protect.

Google's recent $12.5bn deal to acquire Motorola Mobility will bring the Android maker a number of new properties, most notably an in-house handset and tablet maker with an extensive history in the hardware market.

But the acquisition may also yield valuable intellectual property which some believe will play a pivotal role in Google's legal feud over patents related to Android.

Patent lawyer David Mixon suggested in an interview with Bloomberg that the star of the Google/Motorola deal may be a collection of 18 Motorola patents which could put Google in a stronger position in its legal dealings with the likes of Apple and Microsoft.

Mixon suggested that the patents are of particular value because they cover core components such as touch-screen hardware and wireless antennas.

Google cited Motorola's patent holdings as a motivating factor in the deal. In an era when every major vendor seems to be taking the other to court, patent portfolios are considered as good as currency in helping to negotiate licensing settlements.

According to some in the industry, however, Motorola's patent holdings may be overstated. Intellectual property expert Florian Mueller has previously noted that Apple and Microsoft have filed their own patent suits against Motorola.