The famous Wikipedia is continuously growing up, becoming the main source of information and news for numerous Internet users. According to a market research conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings, Wikipedia recorded no less than 46.8 million unique visitors in May 2007 that means almost a 72 percent increase since June 2006. Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia that allows users to post their own articles and to edit the already existent ones in order to offer accurate information and up-to-date details. Because of this, Wikipedia is updated almost anytime, representing one of the most useful sources of information.

"It's the seminal collaborative online resource," said Nielsen BuzzMetrics vice president marketing Max Kalehoff, according to Reuters cited by Yahoo News. "It's like a living amoeba. It's constantly growing."

Wikipedia is not only a powerful stand-alone service but also an attractive partner for a lot of companies. Take for example Google, the Mountain View company that owns the best search technology on the Internet. In order to provide instant access to valuable information hosted by Wikipedia, Google introduced a special operator that shows details from the electronic encyclopedia. Try searching for "define Softpedia" and you'll understand what I mean.

But the alliance with Google is not as useful as it seems, especially for the Mountain View giant. Some time ago, the Wikipedia founder announced its revolutionary plan to develop his own search technology that will surely compete with Google and steal an important part of the users. I wonder if Google plans to keep the Wikipedia information implemented into its search engine after the encyclopedia releases its own solution.

Until then, Google is still the main search engine on the Internet and it is quite one of the major sources for Wikipedia's traffic so I think the encyclopedia should be grateful for the considerable number of users redirected to its official page.