Business
Wikipedia now a top site, thanks to Google
Ninth place ranking shows the 'quality' of online dictionary, Wales says. In any case, Google searches tend to point to Wikipedia - proof the site is widely referred to.
Despite university bans and limitations on its use, Wikipedia has scored in the top 10 rankings of hot Internet properties for this month, reports Tech News World.
With 42.9 million unique visitors, Wikipedia earned ninth place ranking on comScore's traffic watcher's list of top 50 properties for the month.
"The top 10 sites don't change all that often," said comScore analyst Michael Rubin. "Before Wikipedia jumping in, there was Fox Interactive Media in August, after they acquired MySpace. They jumped pretty high up after that," to LinuxInsider.
Wikipedia's ranking has search engine giant Google to thank for directing traffic to the site. Fifty percent of all visits to Wikipedia came from Google.
"The amount of traffic leaving Google and going to Wikipedia has increased by 166 percent from last February to this February," said LeeAnn Prescott, research director for Hitwise in San Francisco told Linux Insider.
It seems that Google and Wikipedia fit well together, which is why so much traffic diverted from search engines to Wikipedia.
"With all the links leaving Wikipedia and links within Wikipedia linking to other entries, Wikipedia entries are given high rankings in natural search results," she said.
Some speculate that Google is unfairly hyping links to Wikipedia, a charge that Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales disputes.
"I think the causal connection is quality," he told LinuxInsider. "Google's algorithm is designed to find good quality, relevant information for people when they search on a search term. That's what we strive to provide."