Wikipedia Use Rises Dramatically Among Bloggers

A BlogPulse analysis finds that Wikipedia, the user-created, collaborative online encyclopedia, is one of the hottest applications on the Internet. In fact, consumer references and blog links to Wikipedia have increased steadily and dramatically in the past few months, fueled by increased blog traffic and a need for real-time updates about breaking news stories.

More than twice as many bloggers now refer to Wikipedia as they do to the more traditional term "encyclopedia," and a half-percent of all blog posts typically cite Wikipeda as a source of information. Bloggers, in fact, mention Wikipedia six times more frequently than they mention Encyclopedia Britannica's web site.



The breaking news fuel
According to the BlogPulse analysis:
• July's subway bombings in London and the August-September coverage of Hurricane Katrina have contributed greatly to noticeable spikes in the use of Wikipedia as a source of immediate and thorough news, background and context.
• Wikipedia's trust level is obviously on the rise, fueled by an increase in consumer-generated media across the Internet and the thoughtful, passionate and mediated postings that appear on Wikipedia.
• Of the foreign-langue Wikipedia versions (French, Germany, Italian, Spanish, Japanes, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch and Swedish), blog citations to the German-language Wikipedia increased the most, nearly doubling in the past six months.

"Wikipedia is filling users' needs for a comprehensive and current directory of resources and facts on a wide range of subjects, and it does so as a potent cross between an Encyclopedia Britannica and a Yahoo! Directory with continuous updates," said Sundar Kadayam, Chief Technology Officer of Intelliseek and product manager of BlogPulse.