"Reaction [beta]"
"Wikipedia is beginning to dominate search" 10 Dec 2007
John Batelle reports on some interesting findings from a student-based study of Yahoo and Google:
"The first [search result] offered by Google and Yahoo is identical in 27% of cases. In a previous study (using a slightly different protocol), conducted in December 2005, the proportion was 24%. The order of magnitude is thus similar."
Could such homogeneity explain why Google continues to dominate search? ("What's the point in going to Yahoo!, Live.com etc., when they only return the same set of results as Google?")
"The most surprising result came from the use of Wikipedia. This use was marginal in December 2005...At [which] time, for all 10 [search] results on the first page, 2% of the links proposed by Google and 4% of those proposed by Yahoo came from Wikipedia. On the first link alone, Google offered no Wikipedia results (at least not in our sample) and Yahoo offered 7%.
"The strategies have changed completely. Today 27% of Google's results on the first link alone come from Wikipedia, as do 31% of Yahoo's."
In case the above isn't clear, the authors of the study are saying that for any given query, there is a 27% chance that the first result returned by Google will come from Wikipedia (and on Yahoo! there's a 31% chance). It therefore appears that Wikipedia has begun to dominate the world of search.
What's interesting about these two findings is that, while the web is wildly heterogeneous, our search engines are pointing us towards fewer and fewer information resources. And if Google and Yahoo! contine to point us to Wikipedia alone, how long will it be before we cut out these middlemen and start going directly to Wikipedia itself?
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5 comments so far
Ed 10 Dec 2007 04:58 PM
Never.
Wikipedia's search is rather poor. ;)
Simon 11 Dec 2007 11:11 AM
Ed: Lovin' your work ;)
tamlyn 11 Dec 2007 03:33 PM
Not only is Wikipedia search poor but it's quicker to go via Google. Most browsers have a built-in search box so typing in the query is 'free'. The next page displayed is the Google results page. Click on the Wikipedia link and you're at the article.
Simon 11 Dec 2007 03:44 PM
tamlyn, Ed: I wonder if these problems will be resolved by Wikipedia's "Search Wikia project" - the open source search engine its been working on for the last year or so (?)
Fake Diploma 14 Mar 2008 09:01 PM
Tamlyn, you missed the point. The idea behind the article is that search results both from yahoo and google are pointing mainly at wikipedia. They're not offering a lot of alternatives in the first results. And I think it's only natural since wikipedia is growing in importance and is getting more and more hits from all over the world. Finally I'm not sayin' it's a bad thing, just that maybe we should get a bit more diversity, that's all.