Information central - I remarked a couple of days ago on Dave Winer's observation that the enormous popularity of Wikipedia may represent a new kind of centralization of information. An analysis of the recently disclosed AOL search data, by SEO Blackhat, adds a further gloss to this phenomenon. According to the analysis, the #1 ranked search result garners, on average, 42.1% of all clickthroughs. The clickthrough rate falls off precipitously from there, with the #2 result representing 11.9%... [Nicolas Carr's Blog]

In an almost perfect demonstration of the nature of the new interweb I found reading this article on cbc.ca almost laughable.

The author, well intentioned or not, links to YouTube, Wikipedia, and a handful of other sites to describe entities that actually have their own dedicated web sites. One of the most glaring examples was linking to Wikipedia when mentioning Pearl Jam: who have a very well maintained web site.

Perhaps it was the nature of the article or rules barring links to commercial sites, I don't know. I don't really mind either way. What I do find disturbing is the fact that Wikipedia is fast becoming a reference point for all research and as Nicolas repeats again and again, it is not exactly of high quality in many realms. It's "Good Enough" but I worry about our collective intelligence if "Good Enough" is the bar we measure against.