Re: Google Zero is coming [was Re: Wikipedia at 25: A Wake-Up Call (essay)]
Yaroslav Blanter via Wikimedia-l <[email protected]> Thu, 9 Jul 2026 10:12:30 +0200
| Newsgroups | gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation |
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| Message-ID | <CAM-kgDN=LcMXMT=3HdwETLNhWKFGjScmQBWNtAa3okV=D9dcPw@mail.gmail.com> |
--===============7810574155169002298== Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0000000000002dd64f065629307a" --0000000000002dd64f065629307a Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I do not think Google Zero will be (is) experienced by anyone except for us as a problem. Sure, the current AI search is not perfect, but it will be much better on a horizon of months. It is unfortunate that the end users take the results uncritically rather than checking them clicking on the source links, but it is what it is. May be this culture would change, but this timescale is way way longer than the time to improve the AI search quality. Except for obvious financial implications (which are very important though) it looks like Wikipedia will be mainly the base for training AI. It is ok, in real life most people do not read encyclopaedias. It is important to be the training base as well, but we should also realize that if this is our role then some priorities must be shifted. For example, AI do not care whether the article looks nice or not, they do not care about usability. They probably do not care about categories and many other things we spent years trying to make them perfect. They do care about content though. On the other hand, there are clearly things AI can not do, which were already mentioned here. They can not read offline material, and much of the paywall material. They can not produce pictures out of nothing - which means Commons might have a very different role from what it has now. It might even become the flagship project (unlikely though with the current Commons community). But all these things require attention, and many of them will be resisted by the community in the first place. Best Yaroslav On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at 9:33=E2=80=AFAM Anders Wennersten via Wikimedia-l < [email protected]> wrote: > I agree we ought to analyze better our situation, before we run to > conclusions and discuss remedies > > Swwp has seen a decrease in traffic like others but in June we have seen > an increase even if we include only accesses from mobiles (at least for > June) > > > https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/sv.wikipedia.org/reading/total-page-views/n= ormal|bar|2-year|(agent)~user|monthly > > What we have seen more clearly though is that accesses of the most read > articles per day in decreasing. > > We have also more subjectively from media, and social media seen a growin= g > skepticism toward AI-generated results and an increase in the trust of > Wikipedia results > > Our general conclusions this far are > > *We are doing well in our core encyclopedic articles (like of > administrative divisions within a country) , but less well in newslike > articles (which the internet readers asks more frequently, but where > newswebsites always been stronger). And we should concentrate our efforts > where we are strong > > *We are in a late stage in our general product life cycle and must accept > this. We will never have the increase in editors etc like we hade 15 yeas > ago, but must do what we can do thrive in a this mode. For us - less ang= ry > internal argument, partially done by avoiding articles of infected subjec= ts > like Israel-Palestine > > And for Google Zero. I believe it is them who has a problem not us. Early > on, and still, all new PC user were forced into Microsoft Edge and Bing > which lead us to Firefox and Google. Google zero as I see will lead to an > exodus fr=C3=A5n Google, there are many other search engines that works f= ine > > Wikipedia is great > > Anders > > > > > Den 2026-07-09 kl. 08:35, skrev Kimmo Virtanen via Wikimedia-l: > > Hi, > > Secondly, I'd love to see initiative outside of enwiki. If you look at al= l >> the ~1000 Wikimedia projects, almost all of them are seeing an increase = in >> traffic ; only a few big old wikipedias are seeing a decrease (which are >> also the ones with the most traffic, hence why it's more visible but it >> obfuscate at the big picture) > > > Based on stats total pageviews of human users of all wikis are dropping > - > https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/reading/total-page-views/norma= l|bar|all|(agent)~user|monthly > > > Br, > -- Kimmo Virtanen, Zache > > On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at 9:13=E2=80=AFAM Nicolas VIGNERON via Wikimedia-l < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi y'all, >> >> First could someone remind me how much traffic comes from Google (I have >> a vague memory from last year that this is already very low - maybe 10 o= r >> 20 % - and that LLMs are already bringing more traffic to Wikipedia, if >> true we essentially are at Google Zero already). >> >> Secondly, I'd love to see initiative outside of enwiki. If you look at >> all the ~1000 Wikimedia projects, almost all of them are seeing an incre= ase >> in traffic ; only a few big old wikipedias are seeing a decrease (which = are >> also the ones with the most traffic, hence why it's more visible but it >> obfuscate at the big picture). >> I think we should start by looking at and learning from the "successful" >> projects instead of focusing on the declining ones. For instance, >> Wikisources always have been badly to not-at-all referenced by Google an= d >> yet there is a strong increase in pageviews recently. >> >> Cheers, >> Nicolas >> >> Le jeu. 9 juil. 2026 =C3=A0 03:38, Michael Snow via Wikimedia-l < >> [email protected]> a =C3=A9crit : >> >>> On 7/8/2026 12:52 PM, Luis Villa via Wikimedia-l wrote: >>> > - Scale of impact is important, but it isn=E2=80=99t everything. Some= times >>> > we=E2=80=99ll have to build things without knowing if they=E2=80=99ll= scale, or even >>> > perhaps knowing that they won=E2=80=99t scale (eg Depths of Wikipedia= is one >>> > of the best community-builders we have even though it has =E2=80=9Con= ly=E2=80=9D a few >>> > million followers). =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s good but it won=E2=80=99t= scale to enwiki=E2=80=9D can >>> > never be allowed to be a blocker for anyone. If the experiment is >>> > actually great, then we=E2=80=99ll figure out a way to get it onto en= wiki. Or >>> > not! That shouldn=E2=80=99t stop people. >>> >>> At this point, no single initiative (whether community, chapter, or >>> WMF-led) will have an inherent capacity to scale to enwiki. To do so >>> would require corporate-style resources with a corresponding top-down >>> mandate for implementation, and risk (rightly) triggering resistance to >>> the point of launching a true durable fork, for once. Instead, the best >>> approach would be to find ideas that are good enough to propagate, >>> encourage them, and when they have propagated enough, they will scale >>> with relatively little intervention needed. >>> >>> --Michael Snow >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines >>> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> Public archives at >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]= .org/message/6EQOFSG34E3BC6FIYL55HYBTQBAW4XFN/ >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines >> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]= org/message/4WPCSTZNDMBDMYHWHV27BN2EZLGY5LXB/ >> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines a= t: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://met= a.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-= [email protected]/message/W24PTVEX2A7YSR4YNHIUQTCGMAIMF2S3/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]= rg/message/XEKWEBKCXK2V4B3M2JSVFF4E53CWOKI3/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org --0000000000002dd64f065629307a Content-Type: text/html; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <div dir=3D"ltr"><div>I do not think Google Zero will be (is) experienced b= y anyone except for us as a problem.</div><div><br></div><div>Sure, the cur= rent AI search is not perfect, but it will be much better on a horizon of m= onths. It is unfortunate that the end users take the results uncritically r= ather than checking them clicking on the source links, but it is what it is= . May be this culture would change, but this timescale is way way longer th= an the time to improve the AI search quality.</div><div><br></div><div>Exce= pt for obvious financial implications (which are very important though) it = looks like Wikipedia will be mainly the base for training AI. It is ok, in = real life most people do not read encyclopaedias. It is important to be the= training base as well, but we should also realize that if this is our role= then some priorities must be shifted. For example, AI do not care whether = the article looks nice or not, they do not care about usability. They proba= bly do not care about categories and many other things we spent years tryin= g to make them perfect. They do care about content though.</div><div><br></= div><div>On the other hand, there are clearly things AI can not do, which w= ere already mentioned here. They can not read offline material, and much of= the paywall material. They can not produce pictures out of nothing - which= means Commons might have a very different role from what it has now. It mi= ght even become the flagship project (unlikely though with the current Comm= ons community). But all these things require attention, and many of them wi= ll be resisted by the community in the first place.</div><div><br></div><di= v>Best</div><div>Yaroslav</div></div><br><div class=3D"gmail_quote gmail_qu= ote_container"><div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at= 9:33=E2=80=AFAM Anders Wennersten via Wikimedia-l <<a href=3D"mailto:wi= [email protected]">[email protected]</a>> wrot= e:<br></div><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0= .8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u> =20 =20 =20 <div> <p>I agree we ought to analyze better our situation, before we run to conclusions and discuss remedies</p> <p>Swwp has seen a decrease in traffic like others but in June we have seen an increase=C2=A0 even if we include only=C2=A0 accesses fr= om mobiles (at least for June)</p> <p><a href=3D"https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/sv.wikipedia.org/reading/to= tal-page-views/normal%7Cbar%7C2-year%7C(agent)~user%7Cmonthly" target=3D"_b= lank">https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/sv.wikipedia.org/reading/total-page-vie= ws/normal|bar|2-year|(agent)~user|monthly</a></p> <p>What we have seen more clearly though is that accesses of the most read articles per day in decreasing.</p> <p>We have also more subjectively from media, and social media seen a growing skepticism toward AI-generated results and an increase in the trust of Wikipedia results=C2=A0</p> <p>Our general conclusions this far are</p> <p>*We are doing well in our core encyclopedic articles (like of administrative divisions within a country) , but less well in newslike articles (which the internet readers asks more frequently, but where newswebsites always been stronger). And we should concentrate our efforts where we are strong</p> <p>*We are in a late stage in our general product life cycle and must accept this. We will never have the increase in editors etc like we hade 15 yeas ago, but must do what we can=C2=A0 do thrive in = a this mode. For us - less angry internal argument, partially done by avoiding articles of infected subjects like Israel-Palestine</p> <p>And for Google Zero. I believe it is them who has a problem not us. Early on, and still, all new PC user were forced into Microsoft Edge and Bing=C2=A0 which lead us to Firefox and Google. Google zero as I see will lead to an exodus fr=C3=A5n Google, there a= re many other search engines that works fine</p> <p>Wikipedia is great</p> <p>Anders</p> <p><br> </p> <p><br> </p> <p><br> </p> <div>Den 2026-07-09 kl. 08:35, skrev Kimmo Virtanen via Wikimedia-l:<br> </div> <blockquote type=3D"cite"> =20 <div dir=3D"ltr">Hi, <div><br> </div> <blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex= ;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><font color=3D"#1= 34f5c">Secondly, I'd love to see initiative outside of enwiki. If you look at all the ~1000 Wikimedia projects, almost all of them are seeing an increase in traffic ; only a few big old wikipedias are seeing=C2=A0a decrease (which are also the ones with the most traffic,=C2=A0hence why it's mo= re visible but it obfuscate at the big picture)</font></blockquote= > <div><br> </div> <div>Based on stats total pageviews of human users of all wikis are dropping</div> <div>-<span>=C2=A0</span><a href=3D"https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/a= ll-projects/reading/total-page-views/normal%7Cbar%7Call%7C(agent)~user%7Cmo= nthly" target=3D"_blank">https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/all-projects/reading= /total-page-views/normal|bar|all|(agent)~user|monthly</a>=C2=A0</div> <div><br> </div> <div>Br,</div> <div>-- Kimmo Virtanen, Zache</div> </div> <br> <div class=3D"gmail_quote"> <div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at 9:13= =E2=80=AFAM Nicolas VIGNERON via Wikimedia-l <<a href=3D"mailto:wikimedia-= [email protected]" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a= >> wrote:<br> </div> <blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex= ;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"> <div dir=3D"ltr"> <div>Hi y'all,</div> <div><br> </div> <div>First could someone remind me how much traffic comes from Google (I have a vague memory from last year that this is already very low - maybe 10 or 20 % - and that LLMs are already=C2=A0bringing more traffic to Wikipedia, if true we essentially are at Google Zero already).</div> <div><br> </div> <div>Secondly, I'd love to see initiative outside of enwiki= . If you look at all the ~1000 Wikimedia projects, almost all of them are seeing an increase in traffic ; only a few big old wikipedias are seeing=C2=A0a decrease (which are also the ones with the most traffic,=C2=A0hence why it's more visible but it obfuscate at the big picture).</div> <div>I think we should start by looking at and learning from the "successful" projects instead of focusing on th= e declining ones. For instance, Wikisources always have been badly to not-at-all referenced by Google and yet there is a strong increase in pageviews recently.</div> <div><br> </div> <div>Cheers,</div> <div>Nicolas</div> </div> <br> <div class=3D"gmail_quote"> <div dir=3D"ltr" class=3D"gmail_attr">Le=C2=A0jeu. 9 juil. 2026 =C3=A0=C2=A003:38, Michael Snow via Wikimedia-l <<a href= =3D"mailto:[email protected]" target=3D"_blank">wikimedia-l@l= ists.wikimedia.org</a>> a =C3=A9crit=C2=A0:<br> </div> <blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0= .8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On 7/8/2026 12:52 PM, Luis Villa via Wikimedia-l wrote:<br> > - Scale of impact is important, but it isn=E2=80=99t everything. Sometimes <br> > we=E2=80=99ll have to build things without knowing if th= ey=E2=80=99ll scale, or even <br> > perhaps knowing that they won=E2=80=99t scale (eg Depths= of Wikipedia is one <br> > of the best community-builders we have even though it has =E2=80=9Conly=E2=80=9D a few <br> > million followers). =E2=80=9CThat=E2=80=99s good but it = won=E2=80=99t scale to enwiki=E2=80=9D can <br> > never be allowed to be a blocker for anyone. If the experiment is <br> > actually great, then we=E2=80=99ll figure out a way to g= et it onto enwiki. Or <br> > not! That shouldn=E2=80=99t stop people.<br> <br> At this point, no single initiative (whether community, chapter, or <br> WMF-led) will have an inherent capacity to scale to enwiki. To do so <br> would require corporate-style resources with a corresponding top-down <br> mandate for implementation, and risk (rightly) triggering resistance to <br> the point of launching a true durable fork, for once. Instead, the best <br> approach would be to find ideas that are good enough to propagate, <br> encourage them, and when they have propagated enough, they will scale <br> with relatively little intervention needed.<br> <br> --Michael Snow<br> <br> _______________________________________________<br> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- <a href=3D"mailto:wikimedia-l@lis= ts.wikimedia.org" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a>, guidelines at: <a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mai= ling_lists/Guidelines" rel=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://meta.wi= kimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines</a> and <a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l" r= el=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimed= ia-l</a><br> Public archives at <a href=3D"https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyp= erkitty/list/[email protected]/message/6EQOFSG34E3BC6FIYL55HY= BTQBAW4XFN/" rel=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.o= rg/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/6EQOFSG34E3BC6FI= YL55HYBTQBAW4XFN/</a><br> To unsubscribe send an email to <a href=3D"mailto:wikimedia-l= [email protected]" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]= edia.org</a></blockquote> </div> _______________________________________________<br> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]= ikimedia.org" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a>, guidelines at: <a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing= _lists/Guidelines" rel=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://meta.wikime= dia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines</a> and <a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l" rel= =3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia= -l</a><br> Public archives at <a href=3D"https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperki= tty/list/[email protected]/message/4WPCSTZNDMBDMYHWHV27BN2EZL= GY5LXB/" rel=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/h= yperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/4WPCSTZNDMBDMYHWHV27= BN2EZLGY5LXB/</a><br> To unsubscribe send an email to <a href=3D"mailto:wikimedia-l-lea= [email protected]" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]= .org</a></blockquote> </div> <br> <fieldset></fieldset> <pre>_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]= rg" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a>, guidelines at: <= a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines" target= =3D"_blank">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines</a> an= d <a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l" target=3D"_blank"= >https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l</a> Public archives at <a href=3D"https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/w= [email protected]/message/W24PTVEX2A7YSR4YNHIUQTCGMAIMF2S3/" t= arget=3D"_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@li= sts.wikimedia.org/message/W24PTVEX2A7YSR4YNHIUQTCGMAIMF2S3/</a> To unsubscribe send an email to <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]= ikimedia.org" target=3D"_blank">wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org</a></= pre> </blockquote> </div> _______________________________________________<br> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]= rg" target=3D"_blank">[email protected]</a>, guidelines at: <= a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines" rel=3D"= noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists= /Guidelines</a> and <a href=3D"https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l"= rel=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikim= edia-l</a><br> Public archives at <a href=3D"https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/w= [email protected]/message/XEKWEBKCXK2V4B3M2JSVFF4E53CWOKI3/" r= el=3D"noreferrer" target=3D"_blank">https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/= list/[email protected]/message/XEKWEBKCXK2V4B3M2JSVFF4E53CWOK= I3/</a><br> To unsubscribe send an email to <a href=3D"mailto:[email protected]= ikimedia.org" target=3D"_blank">wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org</a></= blockquote></div> --0000000000002dd64f065629307a-- --===============7810574155169002298== Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/6N356SKKS2KZEDCV2PFC4GSCERTB7D3E/ To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave-RusutVdil2icGmH+5r0DM0B+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org --===============7810574155169002298==--