Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-06-05/External tools
New external tools
Search Wikipedia and Google on the same screen
A new "Googlepedia" extension for Mozilla Firefox integrates Wikipedia content into Google searches, and redirects internal Wikipedia links to Google search requests. It displays a Wikipedia article and Google search results side-by-side, similar to the Amazon.com A9.com search engine. The add-on can be customized to certain languages; the Wikipedia in that language will be used.
"Latent search engine" toolbar links web content to Wikipedia
A press release from search software company blinkx says "Pico reveals latent talent"
- After a simple download (for Windows users only), a series of 12 coloured buttons form the Pico toolbar. If relevant content is available, the box will appear coloured – such as red for news, green for a Wikipedia entry. Each button is for a different form of content, such as blogs, video, websites, images and the Myspace online community.
Some readers may have been confused about the relationship because the press release referred to Wikipedia "partnering with Blinkx." In reality, blinkx has no official connection to the Wikimedia Foundation, and Jimmy Wales commented, "I have never heard of them."
Publicly editable Google Maps
"WikiMapia" allows the public to add and edit notations on a Google Map, in an "anyone can edit" style. Despite some misleading news blurbs, Wikimapia does not have any connection to Wikipedia (although users can include links to any website within their map notation).
Similar mapping projects include:
- Placeopedia.com - Encourages users to place links between mapped locations and Wikipedia articles
- Alder-digital.de - Google Earth coordinates for English Wikipedia articles
- Pintomap.com - Google Map showing articles from English Wikipedia
- Geonames.org - Google Map showing Wikipedia articles from many languages, and short blurbs about every location
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