Wikipedia adds 20 million new visitors

Wikipedia, the online, user-edited enclyclopaedia, gained around 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year. This makes it the most popular online news and information destination according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

In May, Wikipedia had 46.8 million unique visitors, a 72 per cent increase compared with last year.

The ratings place Wikipedia top of the news and information category for every month this year.

The site is operated by nonprofit group Wikimedia Foundation on an open-access format.

Although this means that false information can be added, it also means that the pages are constantly being updated by thousands of contributors and administrators. Major stories can be updated almost in real time.

In an interview reported by Reuters, Max Kalehoff, marketing vice president of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, called Wikipedia “the seminal collaborative online resource”. He added “It’s like a living amoeba. It’s constantly growing”.