Google News is now trying to experiment with Wikipedia links attaching them to certain stories. Essentially the idea is to give those entries the stamp of approval for online readers who are searching for more information on the article's subject.
It's up for debate as to whether that is a negative or positive thing for readers. Many who form part of the search community have been rather critical about the way that Wikipedia entries tend to often dominate the top search results. The open criticism may or may not be valid because the readers have become used to the resource and instinctively look for it.
Google's stance has been that the entries' content, carefully selected keywords and loyal repeat traffic are the ingredients that result in their high rankings. The reaction is quite similar to the response that it recently gave in the backdrop of media firms complaining about rankings.
Since Wikipedia entries are invariably crowd-sourced, and constantly changing, their nature raises the question of how accurate or precise the info they provide will be once a user clicks through. According to analysts, there is also the issue of whether users will click a Wikipedia link instead of reading the story. This will obviously mean less traffic for the original news source.
On the other hand, Nieman Journalism Lab writer Zachary Seward sees the links’ idea in a much more favorable light by arguing that it effectively serves as a small, albeit ‘potentially crucial’ step in the evolution of news presentation. This will make a single Web page thoroughly informative.
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