Wikipedia Sees Traffic Drop as AI Summaries and Social Video Gain Popularity

Wikipedia, often hailed as one of the last bastions of quality content on the internet, is experiencing a significant decline in human traffic. According to a recent blog post by Marshall Miller of the Wikimedia Foundation, the online encyclopedia's human pageviews have fallen by 8% year-over-year.

Traffic Decline Unveiled

The drop in traffic became apparent after an update to Wikipedia’s bot detection systems. The update revealed that much of the unusually high traffic recorded in May and June was from bots designed to evade detection. This adjustment exposed a more accurate picture of the site's human visitor numbers, which are now showing a notable decrease.

Impact of AI and Social Media

Miller attributes the decline to the growing influence of generative AI and social media. Search engines increasingly use AI to provide direct answers to queries, reducing the need for users to visit external sites like Wikipedia. Additionally, younger generations are turning to social video platforms for information, further diverting traffic away from traditional web sources.

“Search engines are increasingly using generative AI to provide answers directly to searchers rather than linking to sites like ours,” Miller writes. “Younger generations are seeking information on social video platforms rather than the open web.”

Implications for Wikipedia

While the foundation acknowledges the benefits of new ways to access knowledge, it also highlights the risks. With fewer visits to Wikipedia, there is a potential decrease in the number of volunteers who contribute and enrich the content. This could lead to a decline in the quality and breadth of the information available on the site.

“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work,” Miller notes. He emphasizes the importance of ensuring that people understand the origin of the information they consume, especially as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent.

Steps to Address the Issue

To counteract these trends, the Wikimedia Foundation is taking several steps. It is developing a new framework for attributing content from the encyclopedia and has two teams dedicated to reaching new readers. The organization is also calling for support from AI, search, and social companies to encourage more visitors to the Wikipedia website.

“AI, search, and social companies using content from Wikipedia must encourage more visitors to the website itself,” Miller states. “Support content integrity and content creation. When you search for information online, look for citations and click through to the original source material.”

References

• Wikipedia says traffic is falling due to AI search summaries and social video | TechCrunch