Jan 13, 2023 12:00:00

English Wikipedia's top view in 2022 is 'Cleopatra', ahead of 'World Cup' and 'Invasion of Ukraine'

Wikipedia , an Internet encyclopedia, is the most read encyclopedia in modern society, and there are interesting articles that are not only useful for learning and studying, but also for entertainment purposes. Taha Yaseri , Associate Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin , Ireland, created the `` Ranking of the most viewed articles on English Wikipedia in 2022 '', and the 1st place was `` 2022 FIFA World Cup ( 2022 FIFA World Cup)' and ' 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine ', it was revealed that it was ' Cleopatra ' .

Wikipedia_100_most_viewed_articles_2022 - wikipedia_100_most_viewed_articles_2022.pdf
(PDF file) https://tahayasseri.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/wikipedia_100_most_viewed_articles_2022.pdf

2022 wasn't the year of Cleopatra – so why was she the most viewed page on Wikipedia?
https://theconversation.com/2022-wasnt-the-year-of-cleopatra-so-why-was-she-the-most-viewed-page-on-wikipedia-197350

Mr. Yaseri, a computational social scientist, creates a ranking of the most viewed articles on English Wikipedia at the end of the year and analyzes the topics that readers paid attention to that year. For example, in 2020, the “ COVID-19 pandemic ,” “ US presidential election ,” and “ Kobe Bryant ” attracted attention, and in 2021, “ Squid Game (Squid Game)' and ' European Football Championship (UEFA European Championship)' were often read.

And the top 10 most viewed English Wikipedia articles in 2022 are below. 3rd place '2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine', 5th place '2022 FIFA World Cup (2022 FIFA World Cup)', 6th place ' Elizabeth II '8 Surprisingly, it was “Cleopatra” that won first place, ahead of items that became a hot topic in 2022, such as “ Elon Musk ”.

Mr. Yaseri said that many of the top-ranked items were related to news that became a hot topic in 2022, had strong influence such as '

Bible ' and ' YouTube ', media and He pointed out that he was influenced by popular culture. For example, the second-ranked serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer , will be released in September 2022, when the drama based on a true story, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story , will be released on Netflix. The number of views increased sharply after the 21st of the month.

However, Mr. Yaseri says that `` Cleopatra '', which ranked first, does not have the impression that it will be a big topic in 2022, and even if you look at the number of views over the year, it cannot be linked to a specific event.

The graph below shows the changes in the number of daily views of 'Jeffrey Dahmer' in 2022 on the left, and the changes in the number of views on the day of 'Cleopatra' on the right. 'Jeffrey Dahmer' showed an explosive increase in September 2022 when the drama was delivered, but it can be seen that 'Cleopatra' has a certain number of views throughout the year. Also, there was a day when 'Jeffrey Dahmer' got more than 3 million views at once, but 'Cleopatra' was about 400,000 even on the most days, and the number of views increased rapidly due to a specific event. I don't think so.

When Mr. Yaseri investigated this mystery, it turned out that the cause was the

Google Assistant app, Google's voice recognition assistant. The Google Assistant, released in 2016, is built into at least 1 billion devices at the time of writing, with hundreds of millions of monthly users. And when you install the app on your device and try to start using it, you'll see example prompts that you can do with your Google Assistant.

Example prompts include 'Open YouTube,' 'Show Cristiano Ronaldo on Instagram,' and 'Try saying: Show Cleopatra on Wikipedia.' to display Cleopatra)' is included. In other words, the user who started using Google Assistant first ordered to open Cleopatra's Wikipedia according to the prompt example, so Cleopatra's articles are constantly being viewed.

Below is a graph showing the transition in the number of views of 'Cleopatra' since the release of Google Assistant. You can see that the number of views has increased steadily since the Google Assistant became popular in 2020.

This case study shows how casual decisions made by designers can influence the rankings of Google searches and Wikipedia views used by data scientists and web analysts in their research. It also shows the strength of the company's influence on consumers, as many people followed the prompt example to browse Cleopatra's Wikipedia.

Of course, it is difficult to think that the large amount of Cleopatra's Wikipedia being browsed will bring benefits to Google, and I do not think that Google had the intention of ``Let's make more people familiar with Cleopatra.'' Nor is it socially harmful for people to become familiar with the relationship between Cleopatra and Gaius Julius Caesar (Julius Caesar).

However, Yaseri points out that this case is a good example of how small changes and design decisions in large companies can reach large numbers of users through digital technology and have a large impact on the world. “The enormous power that tech companies and the media have in shaping and influencing public attention should not be overlooked,” Yaseri said.