On 04/01/07, Gurch <matthew.britton(a)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