I will openly admit to being somewhat of a Google fanboy; I use many of their products (Gmail, Picasa, Blogger, Documents, Calendar, Reader, Maps), I love the iGoogle homepage, and I've used their search engine since 1998. I support their myriad of projects, even though I feel like they spread themselves too thin, but I came to realize something; I'm not using them as my primary search tool. I use Wikipedia.

I love Wikipedia - I really think it's one of the best things to ever happen to the InterTube. If I have a question, in the past I would have turned to Google - I now check Wikipedia first. I usually find the link I want at the bottom of the article. I've ditched all my "Learn Japanese!" books and I'm primarily using Wikipedia (along with Wikitionary), because it's so much better. I have three major complaints about the service though.

• Spellchecking. I use Google as a spellchecker, but if I put a misspelled word into Wikipedia it will just take me to an error page instead of doing a "closest match" or "did you mean...". This is highly annoying to me.
• Images. Come on, let Wikipedia have a free-for-all image gallery - Enough with the "Public-domain only". I get it, but as a result I still use Google for image searching.
• Integration. Videos, sound bytes, cross-category serch with youtube/flickr/google maps... I want more from my encyclopedia/search engine.

Essentially what I want is for Google to buy Wikipedia and do a sort of overhaul integration with everything else they offer. When I search for "Alaska", I want a glut of useful information, movies, bands, local goings-on, history - everything. I want folksonomic linking, weighted lists, breadcrumbs and linking to and from everything related to the search I do... Also, if I typically search for a particular thing, I want it to know that. If I search for "food", I should get unconventional recipes and traditional Japanese cuisine (NOT a link to recipe.com or whatever). If I search for bus routes, I want it to show me Seattle and the Puget Sound area first. I know I'm asking a lot, but my time is very important to me, and the more information I am presented with, the better. Step it up, Googlepedia!

Labels: Google, Information, Wikipedia