[WikiEN-l] "Who is Ashlee Simpson?"

Fri Apr 8 14:45:21 UTC 2005

(I just used that example to get your attention).

In case you didn't see the article in Slashdot... or find out about it in some 
other way... If you Google on a phrase that begins "who is," then a name, and 
then a question mark, Google will give _an answer and a reference_ as its 
first result. In my experiments, if it does this, it currently _always_ uses 
Wikipedia as the reference.

"Who is Ashlee Simpson?" yields  

Property: ... a U.S. singer, actress and the younger sister of singer Jessica 
Simpson.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashlee_Simpson

"Who is Herbert Spencer? yields

Herbert Spencer
Property: ... an English philosopher.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Spencer

Amusingly, "Who is Beethoven?" yields

Johann Van Beethoven
Property: ... was Ludwig van Beethoven's father.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_van_Beethoven