Much has been said about Google algorithmic favoritism for Wikipedia. I was working on a project this weekend about celebrities, and wikipedia’s dominance in the SERP’s was nothing less than astounding.
1/3 Adults Consult Wikipedia, CD Version is Out
The Washington Post reports today on a Pew Internet study that states that Wikipedia receives around 70% of its traffic from search engines (citing Hitwise), and one in three adults consults Wikipedia—39% of men and 34% of women. The full study also notes that 50% of those consulting Wikipedia are college graduates. One hopes they take the information they find with the appropriate grain of salt.
A Third Of Americans Use Wikipedia
When American Internet users want answers they turn to Wikipedia. More than a third of adults (36%) look to the user-generated encyclopedia according to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Wikipedia SEO: Don’t Spam – Contribute
Because Wikipedia entries routinely show up in the top 5 search engine results at Google, some black hat SEO’s (and a few clueless beginners) realized the value of a link from the online encyclopedia and began link spamming blatantly. So recently Wikipedia posted the "nofollow" tag to all outbound links, purportedly to stop SEO Spam by reducing the value of those outbound links.
Wikipedia Competitor Released In Beta
While Jimmy Wales has been busy of late creating a new search engine and dreaming of challenging Google for dominance within the field, another Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has been working on a new collaborative resource designed at offering more validity and expertise to its entries.
Citizendium Hopes to Build a Better Wikipedia
One of the biggest criticisms of Wikipedia – apart from the addition of nofollow links – is that anyone can add, delete or modify an entry anonymously. This often causes major headaches – vandalized entries or spam links – and is the Achilles heel of the world’s most popular online encyclopedia.
Wikipedia To Make Experts Walk The Walk
Amid embarrassment over an academic fraud, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has announced that anyone claiming professional expertise in a subject would be required to provide proof of those credentials.
The Wikipedia Admin Brouhaha
Hardly a month goes by without some new dustup involving Wikipedia — either because someone edited their own entry, or because someone bitched about not being able to edit their own entry, or because someone paid someone else to edit an entry.
Fuzzy Zoeller Incensed Over Wikipedia Edit
Professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller has filed a lawsuit against a Florida company linked to the IP address of the computer used to post defamatory remarks about him on Wikipedia.
In Search, Google’s Hot And Wikipedia’s Warm
Carve out another notch in Google’s gunbelt of months it has led the US search market; meanwhile, quite a few of those searches have led people to Wikipedia.
By the numbers, the comScore report on US search share for January looks a lot like it has the previous 12 months. Google’s on top, holding 47.5 percent of the market. Yahoo is in second and running backwards with 28.1 percent, while Microsoft held on to third with 10.6 percent.