Search driving traffic to Wikipedia

Wikipedia has experienced a huge surge in popularity over the past few years, with the majority of its traffic being driven by search.

That is according to new research from Nielsen Online, published on Wednesday (May 14th), which revealed that a number of search engines are among the top five referring websites to Wikipedia.

Unsurprisingly, Google came at the top of the list, referring 61 percent of visitors from home to the online information resource.

Three other search engines appeared in the list of top five referring websites, including Yahoo!, MSN and AOL.

Michael Pond, media analyst for Nielsen Online, commented: "Search providers dominate Wikipedia´s referring traffic because of its scope and value as an information resource.

"The site´s rapid ascent, with audience levels comparable to popular brands such as eBay and MySpace, demonstrates the success of its collaborative nature - readers can edit entries and add information.

"This consumer involvement has led to an increase in blog mentions of Wikipedia, which builds the site´s relevance and credibility."