At last, we learn from history's lessons

Indeed, Wikipedia has added a lot of value to surfing the internet. It has given a wide scope of people easy access to a wealth of information that is, well, easy to understand. But interesting as Wikipedia content may seem, not everything that is provided by the site is 100% accurate. This is because of the nature of the site's content development measures. Because virtually anyone can contribute to a topic, danger of inaccuracy or bias as regards certain articles is high. No less than Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia has released statements confirming the same - while it (Wikipedia) is comprehensive, it is best to use hard, factual sources to substantiate academic papers. However, it is not always easy to access these kinds of information. For people who are in remote areas, particularly, access to this kind of information can be tedious to get, not to mention costly. Usually, access to the best libraries are given only to students of the institution, or to those who are willing to pay a premium to get access to the same through online archives.

This is why I love Google. Its creators have begun the noble project of archiving billions of newspaper articles published over the past 244 years. It aims to do this by copying the archives of newspaper publishers who allow them to do so. While it has its own profit agendas in the online traffic it will be generating, the company promises that it will provide this service for free.

The service has yet to be fully functional, with only a handful of publishers having agreed to the service. Google hopes to get permission from all publishers by giving them a portion of the profits it hopes to generate by the increase in online traffic that this new service will provide.

Another thing that I appreciate about this service is how users can have real sources to cite when using this information to substantiate academic or even other purposes. At least, while it still provides the convenience that we require, uploading the articles in their original form and context will ensure that it is accurate, and attributable to a known and reputable source.

It is about time that we deviated from the system that prohibits easy access to information such as this. Hopefully, it will lead to a bigger interest in history, and a higher standard for accuracy.