I like Wikipedia - love it, in fact. It’s a wonderful resource, and is a testament to what is possible when a lot of people put their heads together and get down to work (even if there is an awful lot of arguing between the editors). I check something on Wikipedia once a day or so; at the very least, I’m looking something up there once every two or three days.
But… (Saw that coming, didn’t you?)
The fact that Wikipedia articles come up as the #1 result for so many things is a bit irksome to me. Yeah, it’s a nice resource, but what is its pagerank, 312? (It’s 8, actually.) I can’t think of any specific examples other than the one that I just ran into now, but there have been numerous times in the past when I’ve searched for something, and thought “huh, the Wikipedia article is first in the results? Weird.” The one I ran into a moment ago is the search “discworld.” To me, the fact that the Wikipedia article about the Discworld series ranks higher than Terry Pratchett’s site about his own books is a little peculiar. Yeah, Pratchett’s site is #3, but, while I’m all for the best resources being listed first, I think the author’s own website about his own books should have more weight than the Wikipedia article.
What do you folks think? I suppose when one looks at the big picture - that Terry Pratchett’s site is visible “above the fold” - it’s not a big deal at all. Certainly, it’s not something I’m going to get upset over. But on principle, do you think the author’s site should come up before Wikipedia’s article about the book series in question?
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