Mark Williamson wrote:
It seems a bit -- forgive me -- daft to use the number
of Google hits
for non-English WPs... how could that possibly be relevant?
Mark
If someone is considered important enough to have their/its proper name
mentioned in, say, the German or French WPs, even in passing, they
probably have some significance that transcends national boundaries.
For example, try
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org
"Albert Einstein" -- 46,100 hits
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org "Kofi
Annan" -- 9,240 hits
but
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org "Monty
Python" -- 608 hits
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org
"Britney Spears" -- 519 hits
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org
"Harold Wilson" -- 335 hits
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org
"Samantha Fox" -- 86 hits
and
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org
"Robert Kilroy-Silk" -- 12 hits
site:wikipedia.org -site:en.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org
"Carrot Top" -- 4 hits
and, of course, it works the other way:
site:wikipedia.org -site:de.wikipedia.org -site:www.wikipedia.org "Bernd
das Brot" -- 9 hits .. hooray!
However, results from WPs with non-Latin scripts might be less useful,
as they are more likely to transliterate names.
-- Neil