NetRatings: Wikipedia stays on top of news and information
By John Pospisil
I’m a great fan of Wikipedia, and so it appears, are a lot of other people, with the online user-generated encyclopedia attracting 46.8 million unique visitors in May, making it the top site for online news and information, according to the latest stats from Nielsen//NetRatings.
Wikipedia has topped the news and information site rankings every month this year, beating other news and information sites by a significant margin.
“It’s the seminal collaborative online resource … it’s like a living amoeba. It’s constantly growing”, Nielsen BuzzMetrics vice president marketing Max Kalehoff told Reuters.
It’s also worth noting that Wikipedia has grown substantially over the past year; in June 2006 the site attracted 27 million unique visitors.
Because Wikipedia is generated by volunteers — anyone can contribute – it’s often criticized for containing misinformation and for being manipulated.
In March, for example, one contributor, Essjay, who claimed to have degrees in theology and canon law, was found to be a 24-year-old college drop out. However, not withstanding such incidents, anyone who’s ever submitted something to Wikipedia will know that submissions are scrutinized by other users, and that in time, any errors, or issues of bias, are addressed (just to demonstrate this in action, here’s Wikipedia article about the Essjay controversy)
The flexibility offered by an open door policy for contributors far outweighs the disadvantages, since it allows Wikipedia to provide very current information. Major topics are often updated with news as it’s breaking. For example, the site carried rapidly updated information about the Virginia Tech massacre back in April.
As an online journalist/blogger I find Wikipedia to be an invaluable online information resource, especially for doing background research. It seems that the rest of the world is also discovering just how useful and interesting Wikipedia can be.
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