I guess that Wiki(pedia|media) could very well gather statistics on

(revision_id, clicked_link)

pairs without compromising the anonimity of the visitors.  It would be very useful to have indications on which hyperlinks are most useful.  For example, I am always curious whether the large editorial effort to curate categories is worth it.  And also, if one had data on:

(revision_id, "search terms used in next search"),

one could infer which links are actually missing.
The problem is that many people use search engines rather than Wikipedia's own search to navigate the Wikipedia... but perhaps the information could still be reconstructed somehow from session information.

But as far as I know, there is no plan nor current infrastructure to have such anonymously logged data.  I don't work there, however, so other better-informed people might comment.

Luca


On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 3:19 PM, Ziko van Dijk <zvandijk@googlemail.com> wrote:
Hello,

Gregory (? if I remember well) mentioned in August 2009 this:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1446862
All examined sites spy on their visitors, but Wikimedia and Wikipedia.

Kind regards
Ziko


2010/4/11 Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell@gmail.com>:
> On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Fuster, Mayo <Mayo.Fuster@eui.eu> wrote:
>> * Does the site learn from the navigation and searches? That is, if a
>> Wikipedia visitor who reads a Network entry then goes to the Manuel Castells
>> entry, Will the system understand there is a connexion between them? Will
>> next time put them together when presenting search results?
>
> No.
>
> Although that is an interesting area of research.
>
> Unfortunately, due to privacy concerns the data that would be required
> to invent such a system (search strings and search click through
> traces) is not available to the public.  (and in fact, the traces
> aren't really collected, currently, as far as I know)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>



--
Ziko van Dijk
NL-Silvolde

_______________________________________________
Wiki-research-l mailing list
Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l