The Wikipedia, which has surged this year to become the most popular reference site on the Web, is fast overtaking several major news sites as the place where people swarm for context on breaking events. The Wikipedia, which has surged this year to become the most popular reference site on the Web, is fast overtaking several major news sites as the place where people swarm for context on breaking events.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (6 September) that traffic to the multilingual network of sites has grown 154% over the past year, according to research firm Hitwise. At current growth rates, it is set to overtake The New York Times (NYT) on the Web, the Drudge Report and other news sites.

But the rising status of the site as the Web`s intellectual demilitarised zone, the favoured source of background on issues, or the arbitrator of polemical disputes, also poses challenges for the volunteer ethic that gave it rise.

According to Reuters in the NYT, from hot topics like Internet, sex and Hitler - some of Wikipedia`s most popular entries - to obscure technical or scientific subjects, the site draws users attracted by its professed neutrality in defining controversial topics.

The report adds that Wikipedians, as avid contributors are known, have developed a set of practical policies to limit mudslinging over fighting words such as "terrorism`` or, more obscurely, a controversial Web programing technology known as `Ajax`. It has drawn five times more US traffic than Google News, Yahoo News or BBC, according to Hitwise analyst Bill Tancer.

Similarly, in April, Wikipedia tied with CNN.com as the second most visited after Google News.