Wikipedia is an ocean of information where one can easily get lost. We have selected 18 really awesome tools that will allow you to get more out of wikipedia and utilize it in a more productive manner. All these tools are completely free:
1. Similpedia:
Similpedia lets you find similar content on wikipedia. Just enter a paragraph of text or a URL and click submit. My search for content similar to History channel’s website http://www.History.com resulted in a number of shows on the History channel.
2. WikiAlarm:
WikiAlarm allows to track several Wikipedia articles and send you automatic email updates whenever your selected articles are edited. This makes it really easy if you want to follow a specific topic and don’t want to keep checking WIkipedia again and again for updates.
3. WikiRank:
WikiRank lets you see what topics are popular on Wikipedia. It does a topic trending very similar to Twitter’s. Just search for a topic and WikiRank will show you the activity it has seen in Past 30, 60 or 90 days. You can then compare it with another topic, search the topic on Google news, New York Times or view the full article on Wikipedia.
4. WikiRage:
WikiRage tracks the Wikipeda pages that have been receiving most edits recently. It shows you the 30 most edited pages within the last hour, last 6 hours, last day, 3 days, week or month. Along with the most edited pages, it also shows you a ranking of the top 30 editors.
5. Wikipedia-Roll:
Wikipedia-Roll allows you to search and browse wikipedia articles visually. It is a cool mashup application that creates a visual navigation of any topic by going through the definition and items of the article. While it can be a little complicated for some topics, it is really helpful if you want a global vision of a specific topic and don’t have the time to shuffle through the details and sub-articles.
6. DeletionPedia:
DeletionPedia provides you with a copy of the articles that have been deleted by wikipedia. As of right now, it contains over 63,000 pages that have been deleted from the English-Language wikipedia.
7. EyePlorer:
EyePlorer helps in visulaizing facts and figures about a certain topic. In short EyePlorer is a graphical engine for facts on Wikipedia. Currently it processes German and English Wikipedia but the data in other languages would be available soon.
8. Navify:
Navify is an interface to browse through the multimedia files related to any topic on Wikipedia. It supports audio, video, images and comments. Just enter your topic and Navify will find all the media files related to your keywords on Wikipedia.
9. Lexisum:
Lexisum is unusual site that browses wikipedia for whatever you type in. Suppose you select sahara desert as your topic. As soon as you type in the given field, the wikipedia entry of Sahara desert pops up. The whole article won’t appear, just a partial extract of it appears to help you in understanding the basic term. Further you can click the associated link to view the whole article.
10. PedioPhon:
PedioPhone brings a wonderful service through which you can generate audio Mp3 of any article from wikipedia. You can further customize your mp3 by selecting between different voice qualities and pace.
11. Snapask:
Snapask is an email service through which you can get information regarding anytihng on your handset. It works simply like this. You add an email address ask@snapask.com in your cellphone’s phonebook. You add a particular command for relative information in the subject. for example flight information, weather, etc. Within 30 seconds, you will get the reply in which the whole wikipedia text will be delivered to your phone.
12. Viswiki:
Viswiki is the compact name for visual Wikipedia. This site is fun to use and it provides visual environment for learning. You need to type your desired keyword and press the search button on the top of the page. You will see a list of articles popping infront of you. On the article page, you will find multimedia like videos and images related to that particular term. It is a wonderful addition to wiki tools.
13. AgainButSlower:
AgainButSlower is a wonderful tool that can be used by children for learning. Whenever you enter any keyword in the given space, it will generate the actual wikipedia article along with a much simpler version that is easy to comprehend. You can view both the versions side by side.
14. PowerSet:
Powerset is a new way to aggregate, summarize and navigate information. It works like a search engine in which you type in your desired keyword and the results will appear in the form of facts. It shows the summary of facts for keywords related to people, things and places. You can even write a question and powerset will unlock its meaning by accessing pages of wikipedia. It also summarises huge articles and makes thier summaries.
15. Labnol’s Wikipedia Guide:
Labnol’s Wikipedia Guide contains a detailed tutorial on wikipedia and its relative tools. It is free and will help you to edit and search things via wikipedia. You would learn about basic tools like tagging words, making articles search engine friendly, etc.
16. Gollum:
Gollum is a Wikipedia browser that gives you complete access to all Wikipedia articles with an easy to navigate interface. The purpose of this browser is to have a much simpler and easier navigation than the original Wikipedia website.
17. GooglePedia:
Googlepedia is a firefox addon that shows you related wikipedia articles when you search something in your regular search engine. Clicking links in the article will trigger to newer google searches. It is a very useful research tool that can help in writing term papers and doing projects.
18. Wikipedia article traffic statistics:
This neat web application shows you traffic statistics for any Wikipedia topic. Just enter the title of the topic and choose the language and it will tell you how many times the topic has been viewed recently. It will also show you a traffic graph and provide information on how the topic is ranked on Wikipedia.
