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
[edit]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
[edit]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 |