Abstract Wikipedia advocates a strict “neutral point of view” (NPOV) policy. However, although originally a U.S‐based, English‐language phenomenon, the online, user‐created encyclopedia now has versions in many languages. This study examines the extent to which content and perspectives vary across cultures by comparing articles about famous persons in the Polish and English editions of Wikipedia. The results of quantitative and qualitative content analyses reveal systematic differences related to the different cultures, histories, and values of Poland and the United States; at the same time, a U.S./English‐language advantage is evident throughout. In conclusion, the implications of these findings for the quality and objectivity of Wikipedia as a global repository of knowledge are discussed, and recommendations are advanced for Wikipedia end users and content developers.

We conducted a comparative study of the usability of hierarchically structured and zoomable Electronic Product Catalogs (EPC).After evaluating 16 hierarchical EPC available online today we constructed a test search interface and used it for comparison with InfoZoom, a novel interface utilizing a compression technique, direct manipulation, and zooming.26 users, who were new to the InfoZoom Interface, but familiar with the Web environment, were studied in their use of one of these catalog types.Performance on both types of interfaces was assessed in terms of search speed, accuracy, efficiency, and user satisfaction.Both interfaces had positive evaluations, but behavioral data and performance data suggest that users valued their interaction with InfoZoom more.

Where, how, and why are scholars invoked on the World Wide Web? An inductively derived typology was used to capture genres of invocation. Comparative data were gathered using five commercial search engines. It is argued that the Web fosters new modalities of scholarly communication. Different categories of invocation are identified and analyzed in terms of their potential to inform sociometric and bibliometric analyses of academic interaction.