Netanyahu, Herzog, Livni lead in Wikipedia page views

Viewing statistics for the pages of Israeli politicians in online encyclopedia Wikipedia over the past 90 days show that the most views were received by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. The statistics were correct up to Sunday, and covered both the English and the Hebrew pages.

In recent months, Wikipedia editors have been working continually to update and improve the pages of the politicians and the parties, as well as to monitor and contend with attempts to slant the content for or against them.

In Hebrew Wikipedia, Netanyahu's page received 53,630 views in the past 90 days, compared to 43,553 for Herzog's page. Livni and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett received around 25,000 views each, while Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon received 23,560 views, more than Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Shas leader Aryeh Deri and the other candidates.

When it came to the parties, the Zionist Union's page was the most viewed on Hebrew Wikipedia, with 32,541 hits in the past 90 days, followed by Habayit Hayehudi with 24,118 views. The Joint Arab List, whose page has existed for only half the 90-day period, received a surprising 14,927 views, a number that would likely have been bigger had its page existed for longer.

In English Wikipedia, Netanyahu's page views jumped significantly to about 150,000 hits in the three days surrounding his speech to Congress on March 3, to reach 450,340 for the past 90 days.

Following Netanyahu in English Wikipedia was Herzog, whose page received 59,902 views, and Livni, with 41,801 views. In the past week both Livni's and Herzog's pages have seen a sharp rise in the number of views. Herzog's page jumped from about 1,000 daily views on average to about 3,500, while Livni's rose to about 1,500 on average from about 500.