Wikiwand
 Logo used since 2014 | |
 Screenshot depicting Wikipedia's page in Wikiwand | |
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
| Available in | English[note 1] |
| Headquarters | San Francisco,California[citation needed] |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founder(s) | Lior Grossman, Ilan Lewin |
| Chairman | Saar Wilf |
| CEO | Tomer Lener (2015 — present) Lior Grossman (2013 — 2015) |
| Key people | Itay Cohen (COO) |
| Employees | 10+ |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | None |
| Launched | 2013[1] |
| Current status | Active |
Wikiwand,formerly stylized asWikiWand,[2]is acommercialproprietaryinterfacedeveloped for viewingWikipediaarticles.[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 onChrome,SafariandFirefoxas 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 withWordtune Read.[10]On March 1, a Q&A feature powered byGPT-3was added to the top of all articles.[11]
Business Model
[edit]Unlike Wikipedia, Wikiwand is not ad-free. A large number of tracking cookies are set. When it started, Wikiwand announced that it would donate 30 percent of its profits to Wikipedia. In 2024, it applies only for user-donated amounts.[12]By clicking on the donation link you can see that the donations go to the Israeli company WIKIPELE LTD.[13]
Notes
[edit]- ^Articles from Wikipedia in 344 languages are available.
References
[edit]- ^ab"Wikiwand - Press".Retrieved27 December2022.
- ^ab"Web App WikiWand Raises $600,000 to Give Wikipedia a New Interface".TechCrunch.7 August 2014.Retrieved3 November2017.
- ^Jillian Wong (21 August 2014)."'WikiWand' Gives Wikipedia Clean New Layout For A Better Reading Experience ".Taxi. Archived fromthe originalon 26 August 2014.Retrieved22 August2014.
- ^Martin Brinkmann(14 August 2014)."WikiWand is a modernized Wikipedia frontend".ghacks.net.Retrieved22 August2014.
- ^"Wikiwand - About us".Retrieved27 December2022.
- ^Grossman, Lior."WikiWand is a slick new interface for Wikipedia".Product Hunt: Launches.Retrieved2023-07-01.
- ^Zach Epstein (18 March 2015)."New free iPhone app transforms Wikipedia into a stunning interactive experience".Yahoo. Archived fromthe originalon 15 September 2017.Retrieved26 March2015.
- ^"Wikiwand for Android".Wikiwand.Archived fromthe originalon 23 January 2021.Retrieved11 February2020.
- ^"Wikiwand, oder wie sehen 600K Venturekapital nach acht Jahren aus?"(in German). 2021-04-08.
- ^"Wikiwand 2.0 is officially here!".Wikiwand. 12 January 2023.Retrieved22 March2023.
- ^"#Wikipedia + #gpt3 = 💞📜!".Wikiwand. 1 March 2023.Retrieved22 March2023.
- ^"About Wikiwand".Wikiwand.Retrieved5 June2024.
- ^"Wikipele Ltd., Ra'ananna, Israel".www.northdata.com.Retrieved5 June2024.
External links
[edit]
