Encyclopedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz has thrown down the gauntlet in terms of online encyclopaedia provision. Last week, Britannica launched a new drive for user-generated content in an effort to reduce the internet’s dependence on Wikipedia.

In an interview with the New Yorker in 2006, Cauz stated that “Wikipedia is to Britannica as ‘American Idol’ is to the Juilliard School.” More recently, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, he blamed Google for propping up the world’s dependence on Wikipedia by allowing it to the top hit for many common searches. He said:

“If I were to be the CEO of Google or the founders of Google I would be very [displeased] that the best search engine in the world continues to provide as a first link, Wikipedia,” he said.”Is this the best they can do? Is this the best that [their] algorithm can do?”

Google’s PageRank algorithm seeks out the most relevant and most cited webpage to any search criteria. Following Cauz’s line, this wikimperialism can only accelerate: the more times it is cited the higher up the PageRank it comes, and thus there is a higher chance it will cited again.

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