On 04/01/07, Gurch matthew.britton@btinternet.com wrote:
So Google has basically created a database of all Wikipedia's infoboxes, and is serving up entries from them as search results on its website? Does this count as mirroring our content? Are they in compliance with whatever rules apply to whatever it is they're doing?
Aside from that, something concerns me here. These snippets are displayed right at the top of search pages, above the search results, even when the Wikipedia article itself is nowhere near the top search result. In other words, anyone who manages to sneak the right value in at the critical moment when Google is re-indexing the page can achieve an effect similar to a [[Googlebomb]], but even more powerful. How long before people start craftily changing infobox labels and values in an attempt to abuse this?
*blocks self for WP:BEANS violation*
What is wrong with Google manipulating data, they do provide attribution for it and they are not creating new works, just pulling facts from old works as-is.
A googlebomb is possible still if you know how to do it and not get caught. And wikipedia has always known that google can index any version, even the vandalised ones, so its nothing new from that aspect.
Peter Ansell