Thomas Dalton wrote:
I think making the pages available in high-ranking Google results is more than 'transparency', it's shouting out to the world.
Google's rankings are Google's responsibility. Wikipedia has never worried about search engine rankings, we just do what we think best and let the search engines do what they think best. Fortunately, those generally coincide, so Wikipedia has very high rankings, but we don't make any special effort to achieve those rankings. We also don't make any special effort to get rid of them.
This appears to be sound reasoning. Basing our activity on "What does Google think?" is a cyber-equivalent to letting your home decisions be guided by what the neighbours think. It relinquishes control to outside elements who have no vested interest in your efforts.
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