Wikiwand, formerly stylized as WikiWand,[2] is a commercialproprietaryinterface 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.
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]
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]
