Wikipedia nofollow for WordPress

Note I have also developed the Recommend Google Pack plugin

Following the recent announcement of Wikipedia adding nofollow tags to external links, basically saying that Wikipedia cannot guarantee that outgoing links are not spam, I think we bloggers can retaliate by flagging all our links to Wikipedia as nofollow. Therefore, I have developed a small WordPress plugin that automatically adds rel=’nofollow’ to all outgoing links to Wikipedia.org, regardless of language.

Download my plugin, and install it in the usual fashion. This has been a quick hack, so please use at your own risk!

Why rel=”nofollow” to Wikipedia?

Just in case you are wondering why I would release a plugin that adds the rel=”nofolow” tag to all links to Wikipedia, here is my justification. I knocked up the plugin rather rapidly this lunchtime, so didn’t have time to describe it properly then.

First, what is rel=”nofollow”? It is a hint to all the major search engines that link that I am making should not be counted when calculating search engine ranking. In practise it means either that the link is user-generated, such as blog comments, thus may be spam or not approved by the page owner, or that I do not like or approve of the contents of the page that I am linking to. For instance, if I were linking to an extremist group for the purposes of illustrating a viewpoint I found objectionable, I’d add the rel=”nofollow” tag to indicate to the search engines that they should not credit my link to the target site for the purposes of boosting the target site’s search engine ranking.

Now, what does Wikipedia adding rel=”nofollow” tell me? First, it appears to me as if they are taking a point of view that their links are not trustworthy or cannot be guaranteed, but whilst Wikipedia does not offically claim to be trustworthy or definitive, the common perception is that it is. Thus, by adding this attribute, they are bascially saying that even if the article is as correct as it can be, the source material they referenced to produce the article (remember there is the “no original research” edict in Wikipedia) is not being fully credited!

Second, rel=”nofollow” has not stopped spammers spamming blog comments, so if they think spammers will lessen up on Wikipedia they are kidding themselves. In fact, knowing that I get a reasonable amount of traffic directly through their kimono article, more than through kimono searches on Google, et al, perhaps spammers may even start hitting Wikipedia harder since rel=”nofollow” may be taken as a white flag, and with the overworked editors less worried about giving search engine boosts through bad links, perhaps they will slacken off.

Third, a lot of blogs link to Wikipedia as an easy reference point for various terms, so with no outgoing links from Wikipedia, search engines will raise Wikipedia even higher in the ratings. With the rumours that Wikipedia may soon start accepting advertisements, one could even conclude that this is not much more than an attempt to boost their revenue.

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179 Comments
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Pimp My Posts (with Word Press Plugins) | BloodhoundBlog: Real estate marketing and technology blog | Realtors and real estate, mortgages, lending, investments said,

August 15, 2007 @ 02:15

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - Written in response to Wikipedia’s implementing a “nofollow” rule to their outgoing links, a plugin to add nofollow to links you give to Wikipedia pages. […]
n-blue | » Follow Me said,

August 15, 2007 @ 22:44

[…] ดาวน์โหลดได้จากเว็บนี้ครับ Wordpress นั้นใส่ no follow […]
WORDPRESS GOD:300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress Blog said,

August 17, 2007 @ 12:19

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - Written in response to Wikipedia’s implementing a “nofollow” rule to their outgoing links, this plugin allows you to add nofollow to links you give to Wikipedia pages. […]
53 Plugins para Administrar Wordpress said,

August 20, 2007 @ 00:58

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow: agrega el atributo “nofollow” a los links saliente de tu blog que se dirijan a wikipedia. Una cucharada de su propio chocolate. […]
Nofollow Blacklist Plugin for Wordpress said,

August 24, 2007 @ 22:21

[…] of that I decided to create this Plugin. It’s based on the Wikipedia nofollow plugin and now allows you to add/remove/edit domains from a blacklist. All domains on the list will be rel […]
Martino said,

August 27, 2007 @ 20:41

Thanks for this very useful and easy-to-use plugin
Martino
voozzy.com » Blog Archive » Плагины для WordPress said,

September 5, 2007 @ 00:26

[…] во время перегрузок не существенные процессы. Wikipedia-NoFollow - добавляет атрибут NoFollow в гипер-ссылки на Wikipedia. WordPress […]
300+ Popular Plugins for Running Your WordPress Blog said,

September 26, 2007 @ 22:46

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - Written in response to Wikipedia’s implementing a “nofollow” rule to their outgoing links, this plugin allows you to add nofollow to links you give to Wikipedia pages. […]
Wordpress god300 tools for running your wordpress blog by mashabale.com · Cyber Space in One Hand said,

September 28, 2007 @ 18:39

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - Written in response to Wikipedia’s implementing a “nofollow” rule to their outgoing links, this plugin allows you to add nofollow to links you give to Wikipedia pages. […]
Wordpress god300 tools for running your wordpress blog by mashabale.com · Cyber Space in One Hand said,

September 28, 2007 @ 18:39

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - Written in response to Wikipedia’s implementing a “nofollow” rule to their outgoing links, this plugin allows you to add nofollow to links you give to Wikipedia pages. […]
Plugin para Wordpress: Agrega nofollow a los enlaces hacia Wikipedia « Javier Aroche @ Wordpress said,

September 29, 2007 @ 00:45

[…] a todos los enlaces que publiquen en sus blogs de ahora en adelante hacia wikipedia? con este plugin para agregar nofollow a todo enlace hacia wikipedia (sin importar el idioma), un pequeño mod a otro plugin ya existente, pueden hacer esta tarea de […]
床垫|席梦思|棕垫|？？？ » WP插件汇总(2)：50多个Wordpress管理员使用的插件 said,

October 3, 2007 @ 17:21

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - 在外链到Wikipedia页中的链接中添加"nofollow"属性。 WordPress Mobile […]
Nestor said,

October 5, 2007 @ 04:19

I agree with the principle of this plugin, and I think I’ll install it on my blogs, but unfortunately it probably won’t have a major effect unless it was something like a default install in wordpress, I can’t see a significant number of people doing it.

Still, as a gesture it makes a point.

Umm looks like there’s a bit of a bug with spam karma, I got a broken captcha…
Nestor said,

October 5, 2007 @ 04:20

Whoops, sorry for the double comment, I didn’t think the first one went through.
53 Plugins to Manage Wordpress said,

October 10, 2007 @ 05:35

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow: adds the attribute “nofollow” to the outgoing links from your blog to go to wikipedia. A spoonful of their own chocolate. […]
Dr. Mike's Steak Dinner said,

October 17, 2007 @ 23:48

WordPress.com nofollow plugin for WordPress…

Per a request for it, I’ve written up a WordPress plugin for adding in a nofollow tag to links to any blog with a ‘wordpress.com’ within the URL of the link. This was actually done for a WordPress Multiuser setup……
Keep NoFollow? Yikes! » 044.us said,

October 29, 2007 @ 09:32

[…] Nofollow to Wikipedia by What Japan Thinks. This is no link love revenge. Since Wikipedia applies rel=nofollow to all external links, you can automatically add rel=nofollow to all links going to Wikipedia.org. Hm, love is best when reciprocated… yup! […]
BLOG OFF ! » Unfolgsam said,

November 2, 2007 @ 23:06

[…] Blogseidank gibt es im Internet für jedes Problem eine Lösung. In diesem Fall ist es ein Wordpress-Plugin, das Wikipedia-Links das selbe nofollow-Attribut hinzufügt, dass auch umgekehrt dort […]
On-line дневник оптимизатора » Архив блога » Плагины для Wordpress с описанием на русском в 3-х частях. Часть 2. said,

November 5, 2007 @ 04:31

[…] во время перегрузок не существенные процессы. Wikipedia-NoFollow - добавляет атрибут NoFollow в гипер-ссылки на Wikipedia. WordPress […]
On-line дневник оптимизатора said,

November 5, 2007 @ 04:33

[…] во время перегрузок не существенные процессы. Wikipedia-NoFollow - добавляет атрибут NoFollow в гипер-ссылки на Wikipedia. WordPress […]
Webmastern.se din guide till större inkomster på nätet said,

November 5, 2007 @ 23:35

[…] Wikipedia nowfollow Sur på Wikipedia att de använder nowfollow på deras länkar? Installera pluginet och dina länkar till Wikipedia har nowfollow! […]
links for 2007-11-07 | unblogged|Artikelverzeichnis said,

November 8, 2007 @ 06:23

[…] Wikipedia nofollow for WordPress » ä��論 What Japan Thinks (tags: wordpress wikipedia nofollow plugins plugin spam blogging) […]
Complete List of OMB WordPress Plugins - One Mans Blog said,

November 8, 2007 @ 15:12

[…] Wikipedia nofollow - Searches for links to Wikipedia.org, and adds a rel=”nofollow” tag if necessary. Why? Because they do it to you! […]
与管理相关的50个Wordpress插件 : : MoonShow said,

November 9, 2007 @ 21:54

[…] Wikipedia-NoFollow - 在链接到Wikipedia的链接中添加“nofollow”属性。 […]
Wikipedia enhancing/polluting Japanese search results » 世論 What Japan Thinks said,

November 9, 2007 @ 23:02

[…] you too are fed up with too much Wikipedia in your Google and you run a blog, please feel free to download my Wikipedia nofollow WordPress plugin. It works with Japanese Wikipedia too, but I’ve not noticed it being used on any Japanese […]