Wikipedia: Academia's Friend or Foe?

Eastern Michigan University is hosting a four-part series called, "Wikipedia: The Democratization of Knowledge or the Triumph of Amateurs".  I attended the inaugural lecture given by Marshall Poe.  Poe is a Russian history scholar at the University of Iowa and is the founder and editor of the Memory Archive.  In his lecture, Poe discussed the evolution of Wikipedia and its role within Internet life and academia. He described Wikipedia as a project that will achieve its goal by getting people to collaborate to create the greatest repository of knowledge ever known.    

With students being some of the largest users of the site, Poe cautioned attendees to use the site carefully.  In his opinion, the site should be used as a tool to focus one's research but it shouldn't be used as an exclusive research source.  Since the material can be edited anonymously, Poe stressed the importance of using the library in finding authoritative resources.  He also made an important distinction during the lecture comparing Wikipedia and Google.  According to him, "Google will give you any information.  Wikipedia will give you information you can use." 

Do you agree with that comparison?  What are your thoughts?