You notice rankings go up when..

[imageworks-261290]

you link out to wikipedia?

I feel there are always benefits to linking out to authority sites like this

[SEODinosaur]

If it helps your users find something they are looking for Search Engines help those users find you.

[Anthony_NorthSEO]

I agree with both you guys...

Gone are the days of outbound links hurting your authority. Be useful to users. Users enjoy usefulness. Google gauges your site's usefulness by the behavior of it's visitors...

What's better for your rankings?

A user clicks through to your site, then realizes "This isn't what I'm looking for" and clicks the back button... bouncing to Google in hopes to find the content they're actually seeking OR...

A user clicks through to your site, exclaimes "Hallelujah! I found it!" and clicks from your site to the content... they give it a good look, and the click back to your site, which was so very helpful.

You get the point. Too many hours in front of the screen for me today.

Donnie said it in a sentence...