[WikiEN-l] Microsoft phrase re Google: "The Wikipedia problem"

[William Pietri]

Andrew Gray wrote:
> The "Wikipedia problem" [...]
>  - that peoples behaviour online is to google for something, take
> the first result uncritically; if it's something researchable, that
> first result is probably served up by us; they'll take it and read it
> and never think to check it.

I just tried a number of searches for semi-random words and phrases, 
going for things I thought people would be likely to search for.

Honestly, out of the things that come up in the first page of results, 
I'd generally rather they ended up on the Wikipedia article if they were 
going to read something uncritically. (Of similar quality were 
government sites, although they were often less readable.) We're not 
perfect, of course. But neither are we trying to separate people from 
their money.

William