Wikipedia / by kevin murray

There are people like myself, that get curious about a certain subject and therefore want to find out about it and that leads to another subject and to another subject and so forth, so that encyclopedias have always been a part of my life.  The nature of encyclopedias, however,  have changed over time, so gone or marginalized are the World Book, Encyclopedia Britannica, Microsoft Encarta, and so forth.  Today, when people think of encyclopedia, they are thinking about it online, and the company that they are drawn to again and again is Wikipedia.  Wikipedia dominates the online encyclopedia world, to which according to econsultancy.com "Wikipedia has a massive 97% share of internet visits among the top five reference websites," which is an absolutely stunning domination, especially for a company that relies on unpaid volunteers to write and to edit articles on Wikipedia.

 

Although from a consumer standpoint I have to admit that Wikipedia does a fine, fair and comprehensive job in delivering content that is pertinent and meaningful, I am somewhat puzzled though by how consistently Wikipedia entries lead or are at nearly the top on so many of my Google searches.  I am not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, or even that it is wrong in any aspect, it just seems suspicious because the internet is rife with companies that will give their eyeteeth to be at the top of the Google search engine results.  Something like this makes one ask the question, does Google feature Wikipedia entries at the top of their search results because this is more often the most meaningful response to a query and consequently this represents a win-win for all, or is there another possibility or possibilities?

 

The first question to ask, is will Google create its own encyclopedia to compete or to replace Wikipedia?  Before I answer this question, recognize that Google Chrome was not the first web browser, but currently is the most popular web browser in America, twice as popular as the 2nd place Firefox.  Also, keep further in mind that Gmail was not the first email application, but now ranks #1 worldwide.  To answer the question above Google did in fact come up with their own encyclopedia which was known as "Knol", created in 2008, but dissolved in 2012.

 

The next question to ask is it conceivable that Wikipedia may one day have its own search engine?  It certainly makes sense as their database is a comprehensive database of collective knowledge, its breadth is worldwide, it is wide-reaching, it is current, it is growing, and Wikipedia is a known product held in high regard.  Whether Wikipedia becomes its own search engine or is bought out by a search engine company such as Bing, to then compete against Google Search is definitely an intriguing question to ask.

 

I do believe, however, that Wikipedia and Google have a special relationship, perhaps implicitly understood, that each serves the other well, so that if the objective is to be both the best search engine and have the best go-to site that answers well the petitioner's requests, why change the formula.