Wikipedia adds No Follow Tags to External Links
No Follow tags are placed on links if a webmaster decides that he/she does not want to pass on popularity to the page thats being linked to. Thats it in a nutshell.
Why did Wikipedia decide to add No Follow tags to its external links? Well basically because webmasters from all over the world wanted to gain the benefit of being linked to from the Wikipedia and so began adding their links to various parts of the website a process commonly refered to as “Spamming”.
Will this stop webmasters from spamming the wikipedia? The short answer is no. This is why:
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The Wikipedia is still an authoritative source and sites should be present there.
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Its debatable whether or not Search Engines actually obey the “No-Follow” tags.
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Wikipedia is the 19th most visited site in the world and therefore a source of highly targeted traffic.
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Wikipedia might allow engines to follow links again in the future.
Read official announcement:
Wikipedia adds No Follow Tags to external Links