User:Eugene van der Pijll/random pages

Procedure: take 20 random pages from the on-line Encyclopedia Britannica; find the corresponding Wikipedia article.

Normal random pages tests emphasize the long tail of minor articles and stubs, and then often conclude that Wikipedia is doing badly. However, these articles are still better than what you would find in paper encyclopedias, simply because those don't have articles on those subjects at all.

My test looks at the articles that also exist in EB. This makes a level playing field.

September 2006

I have just noted the wordcount of both articles; it is clear that Wikipedia wins on most subjects, at least in quantity. My impression of all of the pages listed here, is that the Wikipedia articles also are at least of equal quality as the EB ones.

Britannica article	Wordcount	Wikipedia article	Quality
[1]	~500	Hubble Space Telescope	Featured Article, ~7500 words
[2]	~330	Bertha von Suttner	~250 words
[3]	~80	Time-lapse	~2300
[4]	~130	Sasuntzi Davith (red)	0
[5]	~390	Burakumin	~3650
[6]	~170	Mizrahi Jews	~830
[7]	~100	Catch-as-catch-can	Redirect to larger article Catch wrestling
[8]	~260	Ted Hughes	~660
[9]	~100	Castelo Branco (freguesia) (red)	Same info found in larger article Castelo Branco.
[10]	~70	Siemianowice Śląskie	~50
[11]	~310	Flag of Liberia	~130
[12]	~600	Nuremberg Trials	~3300
[13]	~130	Eleazar Wheelock	~450
[14]	~130	Alain-Fournier	~175
[15]	~150	Palacio de Bellas Artes	~425
[16]	~100	Addax	~250
[17]	~140	Zala	~50
[18]	5	Thursday	~675
[19]	~440	Jezreel Valley	~375
[20]	~160	Ira Aldridge	~860

November/December 2005

Result: 30% good, 35% OK, 15% stubs, 15% substubs. Not bad!

Britannica article	Wordcount	Wikipedia article	Quality
Süleyman (Ibrahim) II	164	Suleiman II	OK
James Bradley	856	James Bradley	EB1911 article
tiger snake	???	Tiger snake	short, OK
cholecystitis	164	Cholecystitis	Good
Buenaventura	151	Buenaventura, Colombia	stub
Glauber, Johann Rudolf	125	Johann Rudolf Glauber	(unmarked) stub
Díaz Ordaz, Gustavo	108	Gustavo Díaz Ordaz	Good
tsunami	980	Tsunami	Good
Katmai National Park and Preserve	282	Katmai National Park and Preserve	short, OK
biblical translation	829	Bible translations	OK
Molle Islands	144	Molle Islands National Park	Very short stub
Dhofar	380	Dhofar	OK
Jawa Tengah	339	Central Java	Stub
Güira de Melena	<75	-	-
Windaus, Adolf	184	Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus	Substub
Lovech	132	Lovech	Good
Kálnoky von Köröspatak, Gusztav Sieg mund, Count	243	Gustav Kálnoky	EB1911 article; {{cleanup}}
Lu Xun	1204	Lu Xun	Good
Tokutomi Soho	249	Tokutomi Soho	Substub (unmarked)
Latvian language	181	Latvian language	Good