Wikipedia in Google's SERPs
Mar 5, 2007
Many of us whenever searching for something in Google there are great chances to see Wikipedia among the first five ranking pages.
As a website owner we ask ourselves if there is something we should worry about.
There is enough proof that this trend of Wikipedia in Google's search engine result pages is not imaginary and reflects the
reality. A recent report by Hitwise is showing a staggering increase of Wikipedia's share of Google downstream by 166 percent over
the past 12 months. Approximately 70 percent of Wikipedia's traffic is from the major search engines and fifty percent is from
Google.
In January 2007 Wikipedia entered in the top ten websites for most unique visitors while it was number thirteen the previous months.
With all this figures and results in our mind many of us are considering Wikipedia as the next internet giant competing even with Google.
Wikipedia takes advantage of the so-called “wisdom of crowds„. The online encyclopedia is available in many languages run by
the Wikimedia Foundation together with other projects like
Wiktionary,
Wikimedia Commons,
Wikiquote,
Wikibooks,
Wikinews,
Wikisource,
Wikispecies,
Wikiversity and
Meta-Wiki
Let's make a short introduction about each project.
Wiktionary
This is a free multilingual dictionary with many useful staff like etymologies, sample quotation, pronunciations and many more.
It has hundreds of thousands of entries and available in more than 300 languages.
Wikibooks
Has a single scope to create a free collection of open content textbooks available for anyone to edit. There are many sorts of
books covering a large range of subjects like automobile maintenance and a guide for teachers who want to use wikibooks in class.
Wikinews
In case you want to experiment journalism this is the place to start experimenting. There are many kind of topics covered here
you might have not found elsewhere and some of the writers are writing like serious reporters.
Wikiversity
Its mission is to create a community with free resources of learning materials and activities. You will find topics you would
expect to study at the university like humanities, physical sciences, life sciences, etc. You will also find a list of resources
developed by volunteers as well as a list of task and featured learning activities.
Right from the beginning Wikipedia has been an search engine idea itself. There's also Wikia Search a for-profit business
corporation founded by Jimmy Wales, the same person who founded Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. It seems unlikely that
either of them would succeed in competing with the Google giant. Any business owner should know what the user-edited online
encyclopedia is saying about his company and it is advisable to check it on a regular basis. Wikipedia plays a huge impact both
on brands and market segments and like in any major search engine listings, users presume that the sites listed in Wikipedia
search are considered the best and most relevant.
Wikipedia is considered a valuable resource of information with lots of content updated regularly by thousands of volunteers.
Besides its strength there is the greatest weakness of Wikipedia like that one of being accessible by anyone in the role of an
editor and very often trying to upload inappropriate content or simply spamming.
A final advice
Always make sure whatever you are reading on Wikipedia is reflecting the truth!
Go back
|
