Wikiwand

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikiwand
Logo used since 2014
Screenshot depicting Wikipedia's page in Wikiwand
Type of businessPrivate
Available inEnglish[note 1]
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California[citation needed]
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Lior Grossman, Ilan Lewin
ChairmanSaar Wilf
CEOTomer Lener (2015 — present)
Lior Grossman (2013 — 2015)
Key peopleItay Cohen (COO)
Employees10+
URLwww.wikiwand.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationNone
Launched2013[1]
Current statusActive

Wikiwand, formerly stylized as WikiWand,[2] is a proprietary interface developed for viewing Wikipedia articles.[3] Its interface includes a sidebar menu displaying the table of contents, a navigation bar, personalized links to other languages, new typography, access to previews of linked articles, display advertisements, and sponsored articles.[4] The interface is available on Chrome, Safari and Firefox as well as via Wikiwand's website.

History[edit]

Wikiwand was founded in 2013[1] by Lior Grossman and Ilan Lewin.[5] It officially launched in August 2014.[6]

In 2014, Wikiwand was able to raise $600,000 to support the development of the interface. According to Grossman, "It didn't make sense to us that the fifth most popular website in the world, used by half a billion people, has an interface that hasn't been updated in over a decade. We found the Wikipedia interface cluttered, hard to read, hard to navigate, and lacking in terms of usability."[2]

In March 2015, Wikiwand released an iOS app for iPhone and iPad.[7]

In February 2020, an Android app was under development.[8]

In 2021, it was noted that visiting a Wikiwand page made the visitor's device exchange hundreds of requests and several megabytes of data with advertisers.[9]

On January 12, 2023, Wikiwand 2.0 was officially launched with an overhauled interface and new features like text-to-speech and AI-generated summaries collaborated with Wordtune Read.[10] On March 1, a Q&A feature powered by GPT-3 was added to the top of all articles.[11]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Articles from Wikipedia in 339 languages are available.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Wikiwand - Press". Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Web App WikiWand Raises $600,000 to Give Wikipedia a New Interface". TechCrunch. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  3. ^ Jillian Wong (21 August 2014). "'WikiWand' Gives Wikipedia Clean New Layout For A Better Reading Experience". Taxi. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  4. ^ Martin Brinkmann (14 August 2014). "WikiWand is a modernized Wikipedia frontend". ghacks.net. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  5. ^ "Wikiwand - About us". Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  6. ^ Grossman, Lior. "WikiWand is a slick new interface for Wikipedia". Product Hunt: Launches. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  7. ^ Zach Epstein (18 March 2015). "New free iPhone app transforms Wikipedia into a stunning interactive experience". Yahoo. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  8. ^ "Wikiwand for Android". Wikiwand. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  9. ^ "Wikiwand, oder wie sehen 600K Venturekapital nach acht Jahren aus?" (in German). 2021-04-08.
  10. ^ "Wikiwand 2.0 is officially here!". Wikiwand. 12 January 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  11. ^ "#Wikipedia + #gpt3 = 💞📜!". Wikiwand. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.

External links[edit]