All Wikipedia Links Are Now NOFOLLOW -

It looks like Wikipedia has disabled all linkbacks from their pages due to spammers and some world series SEO competition. From what I read on the Wikipedia site (not the article linked above) this could just be temporary, but as of now it applies to basically the whole site. Ouch on the search engine value…

I have mixed feelings on this as I do believe that valid links from correctly designed pages should not be no-follow. Wikipedia is supported by its content and user edited and valued support. Now, what to the content owners or contributers have to gain in any plausible way?

Yes, Wikipedia is an information site, but it’s design and fame are such that it has become a reliable source of verifiable content. Search engines, marketing experts and regular internet users value the content in Wikipedia as almost like a published encyclopedia. Now, with the NOFOLLOW tags enabled the traceable value of the content and the outbound supporting resources are nil. That is what I don’t agree with. Personally I feel that spammers need to be devalued certainly, but most major search engines are already implementing the technology to filter this out.

Maybe Wikipedia should implement a similar technology instead of punishing the so-called “valued” contributers it relies on.

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