Wikipedia: Encyclopedia or Kama Sutra?
Written by Adam Tornes (contact - e-mail) -- May 31st, 2007 | Recommend ThisWikipedia can be a great source of information on a range of topics. The user generated universe is infinite and the people that contribute and seek information within this exchange have created one of the most vibrant information communities I have seen in my lifetime. But, I wonder, “What specifically do people tend to use Wikipedia for?”
As you would expect many of the top subjects relate to current events and cultural phenomena. For the month of April some of the top subjects included “Don Imus”, “Virginia Tech massacre”, “global warming”, “Naruto” (a Japanese comic and anime TV series) and “Sanjaya Malakar” of American Idol fame.
In addition to these predictable terms, there was a substantial volume of sexual terms. Apparently Bobby’s parents forgot to have the Birds & Bees talk with their son…as did the parents of Billy, Johnny, Julie, Tommy and Susie. Wikipedia is essentially an encyclopedia, so one would assume these searches are for research and learning purposes – a virtual Kama Sutra of sorts.
We categorized the top 100 Wikipedia terms for April into six general categories to figure out what the major search themes are on Wikipedia. As you would expect the greatest number of searches (28%) are within the research category. This includes terms like “Columbine High School massacre” and “American Civil War.”
The two surprising categories are Anime and Sex:
Anime (26%)
There is a tremendous amount of interest in learning about Pokemon and Naruto. Perhaps these are parents who want to know what their kids are going crazy over. My Mom didn’t know what “He-Man” was until I was a grown man reflecting on how silly Castle Grayskull was. My mom could have used Wikipedia in the 80’s.
Sex (16%)
What’s interesting about the top sex related terms on Wikipedia is that they do not appear to have gratuitous intent. The top terms include very straightforward inquiries on human reproductive ‘parts’ and basic concepts of what sex is and how it is performed. It appears many people are learning about what sex is and how to have it by referencing Wikipedia.
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June 1st, 2007 at 9:32 am
For further interesting information also take a look at Leon’s Wiki Charts.
June 4th, 2007 at 10:42 am
I’ve done the same work but for 5 months based on Anselm Spoerri analysis.
It’s available on my blog with also a pie chart but it’s more focused on entertainment split.
http://ulik.typepad.com/leafar/2007/04/what_is_popular.html
We need to dig wikipedia more in this kind of way.
Thanks, ;-)
June 4th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I think you may be drawing the some skewed conclusions from that graph. By only taking the top 100 searches, there’s going to be a bias towards subjects which have more common search terms. That is, it could be that 75% of all searches are general research, but each individual search isn’t common enough to be in the top 100 searches.
Of course, it’s been a long time since my lower division statistics course, so who knows.
June 4th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Brittany we are not saying its the full picture but only a quick overview. You can dig further in wikipedia but you will be surprise by the amount of traffic generated on entertainement. That’s the reason why i was asking for more digging.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
rnstm wkisxtj qihsbkzv frqbyn iwqd wradbl gvezh
June 21st, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! ykktkdjauja
September 20th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Hi, great article..although the stats are from only one month so you could choose what month to show based on what you want to show right?
Thanks, fuser
October 31st, 2007 at 4:36 am
Samanth
This was one time where I have to agree to disagree
December 28th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Hey, Anime is Great! My five year old son told me that “Japanese cartoons are better than American Cartoons” and that he “only wants to watch Japanese cartoons.” Japanese
government employees got in trouble for writing wikipedia articles about anime on the job.
That said, the Japanese Government does promote anime on official web pages aimed at kids in the US. Unfortunately I don’t think they’ll get “Pretty Cure Five” or “Sergeant Frog” licensed in the US, but so what… We can get ‘em online.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:30 am
hello all, I have read this post and found it to be very informative and gained allot from it. I appreciate the efforts involved in creating it! Thanks for sharing it with us
March 17th, 2008 at 12:35 am
naruto is fun
i love sakura
i have naruto video at comtoon blogspot
Naruto
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
alternative wikipedia… will be very interesting