A Decade of Searching

Wikipedia is celebrating its 10th birthday Saturday, and, fellow students, what would we ever do without it?

Professors warn a free open-source encyclopedia isn’t the most accurate place to glean research information, but when we want to satisfy our curiosity in an efficient way, we head to the site. And, although we don’t directly cite it in our papers, Wikipedia’s citations led us to some useful sources we wouldn’t have looked for otherwise.

The site’s usefulness extends beyond college students, though. According to PC Magazine, Wikipedia counts 440 million unique visitors each month — that number far exceeds the number of people living in the United States. Most of those visitors probably aren’t writing theses, either.

Like it or not, physical encyclopedias and other stuffy books are headed the way of the telegraph. In fact, a Nature Magazine study found Wikipedia’s margin of error on par with that of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

The die-hard purists will beg to differ, but we’re  already invested in the online research methods. We’re a decade into the new age of information gathering.

By using volunteer editors, the site ensures not only continual updates but that the information remains free. It’s by the people and for the people. That fact alone means we’ll be seeing that familiar blue, gray and white layout for a while.