As one of the most visited websites in the world, Wikipedia is the source that countless people turn to for information. Surprisingly, the all-volunteer army of writers and editors are still going strong after more than 20 years. There are, however, some holes in its coverage that might get bigger over time. While you might head straight for the Wikipedia website when you need to know all there is to know about a particular subject, it might surprise you to learn just how much you don’t know about Wikipedia itself.
- It was originally supposed to be written by experts. However, the slow peer-review process meant that fewer than 24 articles were ready after the first year. Once the door was opened for anyone to contribute, things took off, with nearly 6,000 articles being written in the first 6 months. Today, there are 40 million articles in 293 languages.
- Not everything is covered on the site. It may seem hard to believe that there are topics that aren’t covered, or are only briefly covered. While you won’t find much information on sub-Saharan Africa, entries on Pokémon are comprehensive. It all boils down to the fact that people are more likely to write for free about things they’re passionate about, and Pokémon pieces are apparently one of those things.
- It’s more accurate than you think. For years, college professors and newspaper editors have been telling their students and staff not to rely on Wikipedia as sources, but it turns out that studies have shown than the information on Wikipedia is 99.7% accurate.
- Bonus! Siri gets a lot of her information from Wikipedia.
