Wikipedia Articles Appear in Google News Results

Mashable, Ben Parr, June 9 - Google News has built a strong reputation on its ability to quickly find, sort and deliver news information and sources. It takes information from news websites like CNN and Reuters, newspapers like The New York Times, and news blogs like Mashable (). This provides you with a broad overview of the news.

Wikipedia (), on the other hand, is the world’s largest collection of collaboratively-edited information online. Because the articles are built by the hands of so many users, Wikipedia articles can quickly become comprehensive, detail-rich, and filled with sources and info on major news stories and events. Google () apparently sees great value in that information. So much so, in fact, that Wikipedia articles are starting to appear in Google News results.

While Wikipedia ranks highly in standard Google results, they have never appeared in Google News until now. After all, Wikipedia isn’t a news organization. Yet an article from CNN may provide you with a headline and a few paragraphs of information, but not provide the background and depth that a Wikipedia article can have. If you’re looking for the background on Tienamen Square or the Air France tragedy, you’re likely to find all you need there.

Image Credit: Nieman Lab

Google recently told the Nieman Journalism Lab of Harvard University that they’re currently experimenting with displaying Wikipedia articles as a reference and complement to current events news. That means that you might not see the links yet, and Google could end the experiment and remove Wikipedia results at anytime. Yet it seems that Google has an affinity for the community collaboration model, and we’d be surprised if Google doesn’t continue the integration after it collects enough data.

Are Wikipedia articles better sources of information than credible news sources? No, but they’re not worse, either. Wikipedia articles are an aggregation of news information sources to build a comprehensive picture. And having that information available along with news results provides the user with a different option for finding the information he or she is seeking.

Source - http://mashable.com/2009/06/09/wikipedia-google-news/