One News page Ltd.: Wikipedia Makes Online Researchers Lazy

Regular users of free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which this week celebrates its tenth anniversary, admit it makes them lazy.

A survey of around 1000 users of news navigator www.onenewspage.com, found that almost a third (29.5%) admitting that Wikipedia's convenience and breadth had made them lazier when conducting research.

Towards two thirds (62%) of those sampled by www.onenewspage.com said they were regular users of Wikipedia.

And almost all (98%) agreed that the best research is based on checking facts and figures across a variety of reputable reference sources.

Yet 35 per cent confessed that they had abandoned other reference sources in favour of Wikipedia.

As a consequence, exactly a third of respondents agreed that they put too much trust in Wikipedia's content.

Wikipedia was formally launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Today, it has over 15 million articles in over two hundred languages worldwide, with over a million registered user accounts and countless anonymous contributors.

Only 6% of respondents said that they had donated money towards Wikipedia's operation.

Dr Marc Pinter-Krainer, CEO of One News Page, says:

"Wikipedia is a fabulous resource that has added hugely to many people's research and is a great example of the best the internet has to offer. However, our survey reveals there could be a danger in over-relying on Wikipedia by not using alternative reference sources more regularly."

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• Global - http://www.onenewspage.com (English Language)

• United States - http://www.onenewspage.us (English Language)

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• India - http://www.onenewspage.in (English Language)

• Australia - http://www.onenewspage.com.au (English Language)

• Deutschland - http://www.newsdeutschland.com (Deutsche Sprache)

• Global - http://www.paginanoticias.com (Idioma español)

• España - http://www.paginanoticias.es (Idioma español)

• México - http://www.paginanoticias.mx (Idioma español)

One News Page also campaigns for greater search engine transparency at http://www.haveibeenpenalized.com.

For more information, please contact

Enquiries:
One News Page Ltd.
Neil Boom
PR Director
+44 (0) 7866 805 108
www.onenewspage.com