A study of 24 major language editions of Wikipedia used methods inspired by Google’s search algorithms to examine which historical figures receive the most attention and how that attention varies by gender, period and location. Led by University of Toulouse researcher Young-Ho Eom, the team found that prominent figures across the editions tended to be men born in Western countries after the 17th century. Each language edition also gave particular attention to local figures.

The rankings varied with the method used. PageRank, which weighs the number and importance of incoming links, placed Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus first across the language editions. Linnaeus, known as the father of taxonomy, developed the scientific naming system still used for organisms. His ranking reflected Wikipedia’s extensive coverage of named species, many of whose pages link back to him.

To account for outgoing links as well, the researchers combined PageRank with a second measure, CheiRank, into a ranking called 2DRank. By that measure, Frank Sinatra ranked first in English-language Wikipedia, followed by Michael Jackson and Pope Pius XII. Across all 24 editions, Adolf Hitler ranked first, followed by Jackson and Madonna. The contrasting results show how rankings depend on both the measure chosen and the structure of Wikipedia’s content. A separate study of academic references had previously identified Karl Marx as history’s most influential scholar.

Meanwhile, the Internet Archive is crawling websites to preserve pages and the material they reference. It hopes archived versions can replace broken links or accompany current links, allowing readers to see the sources as they appeared when an article was written. The broader aim of its “No More 404” effort is to address broken links across the web.