23 June 2009 | Author: J. Cave SEO Consultant

Stop the Press! Google says Wikipedia's a more credible source

As part of an ongoing experiment, Google has begun adding Wikipedia links to its news service, Google News.

Originally the experiment began with a much smaller number of users; however it looks like the experiment has been a success in Google's eyes as they are now rolling out the idea across all English language editions of Google News.

It's no secret that Google and Wikipedia have had an ongoing love affair for some time now. Google puts a huge amount of trust in Wikipedia and will often rank Wikipedia pages above other deserving pages.

It's fair to say that Wikipedia results within the serps - while not always the best result - are generally relevant and beneficial to the reader. If you're searching for information on a general topic such as "Henry VII" or "tectonic plate movements" you can expect to see Wikipedia in the first few results, usually with relevant, 'accurate' information.

News stories however are a different matter. Driving searchers away from the stories on news sites - which are generally written by a qualified, experienced journalist, often firsthand - and onto Wikipedia - a site which has repeatedly had the accuracy of its information called into question - is likely to increase friction between Google and the online news sites which are all competing for traffic.

To date Wikipedia has not been the best example of a credible, accurate news source. It wasn't too long ago - on the day of US President Barack Obama's inauguration - that US Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd died on Wikipedia, only to be found among the living by news services such as the Washington Post and MSNBC.

Google's Wikipedia experiment is still an experiment; however the decision to expand the experiment across all the English language editions of Google News suggests that seeing Wikipedia links in Google News will become more widespread in coming months.