Wikipedia is a multilingual, Webbased, freecontent encyclopedia project

1

2

• Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based,
  free-content encyclopedia project
• It can be found at http//en.wikipedia.org/
• It is maintained and written by volunteers i,e
  anyone with access to it can make an input to it

3
Comparison of wikipedia and popular search
engines using search results for usb

• Search results for USB.
• Wikipedia
• When a search for USB was done a definition,
  illustrations and pictures were given. The
  subject was generously covered, followed by a
  list other topics related to the subject. Finally
  a short list of external links containing similar
  information was given. There were no adverts
  purporting to have something to do with the
  search item. The presentation was quite
  professional and well suited to students.

4

• Found at http//www.msn.com/
• A long list (40 million) of sites containing the
  subject material was displayed but no definitions
  were given. However the Wikipedia website
  appeared in the results list. But there were
  adverts of not necessarily in good faith and most
  of them were quite misleading.

5

• Found at www.google.com
• A long list (4 million) of sites containing the
  subject material was displayed but no definitions
  were given. More or less the same thing with MSN.

6
conclusion

• While wikipedia is quite good it is weighted down
  by fact that anyone can write anything in it.
• Search engines can be misleading sometimes since
  they are commercial entities.
• Its best to use more than one source for
  searches and definitions