Get more productive with Wikipedia

[narmada]

Wikipedia, the largest public encyclopaedia on the internet that anyone can edit, was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. There are now over 2.4 million articles in the English edition of Wikipedia contributed by people from across the globe.

The site needs no introduction. Wikipedia pages pop on the front page of Google for almost every search and no wonder; it is also one of the largest trafficked sites on the internet with 55 million unique visitors per month from US alone.

Using Wikipedia is simple, just type something in the Wikipedia search box, hit go and you are automatically transported to the corresponding article.

If there isn`t a direct Wikipedia page for your search term, you get to see a list of other Wikipedia pages that mention your search term.

We look at different ways in which you can use Wikipedia more productively.

Search: Wikipedia search box recently added a `Find as you Type` feature where you get topic suggestions in real time as you type more characters in the search box.

For instance, if you type `GOOG`-it will show a list like `Google`, `Googleplex`, etc. A better alternative to Wikipedia search is Wikiwax at wikiwax.com-this shows a much larger list of suggestions and you can also select a different language edition of Wikipedia.

Citations: The articles on Wikipedia can change very quickly. So if you cite/link to an article from Wikipedia on your blog or book or a research paper, chances are that the reference may not make much sense after some time because the article could have undergone a series of iterations by different contributors. Therefore, you should always cite the current snapshot of a page-just look for the link in the left sidebar that says `cite this page.`

Tracking Wikipedia: Say you are a fan of `Amitabh Bachchan` and like to track his Wikipedia page for any changes-you want to prevent vandalism and also want to stay informed when some new information is added to Amitabh`s page on Wikipedia. This is easy though it involves a series of steps.

Open the Wikipedia page of Amitabh Bachchan and click the link on the left sidebar that says `Recent Changes.` On the next page, you`ll see another link that says `RSS` that is again in the sidebar. Copy that link to the clipboard and open another site at sendmerss.com-type your email address and the link here. You`ll now get email notifications as soon as someone edits the Wikipedia entry of your favourite star.

Mobile phone: Wikipedia pages look good on your desktop screen but they are not optimised for the small screen of your mobile phone. Enter wapedia.mobi-this mobile website lets you conveniently read most Wikipedia articles on mobile phones. If the article is very long, wapedia would split it in multiple pages.

Download Wikipedia: If you want to read Wikipedia stories on a computer that is not connected to the web, you even have the option to download the full Wikipedia database on to your computer. Head over to wikipedia.org-it`s free though the file spans a few gigs so make sure you are on a fast, unlimited connection before initiating the download process.