A while ago I posted on the increasing dominance of wikipedia in the online encyclopaedia stakes.

I call this phenomonen ‘wikimperialism’, and since I first wrote about it, one of the rival powers has fallen: Microsoft has announced that it is to discontinue Encarta. If, like me, you grew up in the 90s, you might remember Encarta as the confusing, slow CD-ROM your school considered to be the height of modernity and progress.

The statement claims that this decision has been taken “as part of Microsoft’s goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today’s consumer”, but it’s clearly because Encarta just doesn’t get enough hits anymore to make it viable.

This frees up more online territory for the expansion of the wiki-empire. Enjoy.

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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