Wapedia
Encyclopedia
Wapedia is a mobile version of Wikipedia
. It was started in August 2004 by Florian Amrhein and is currently operated by Taptu
. Wapedia was originally a Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) site for use on mobile phone
s of the very early 2000s. The URL for Wapedia is http://wapedia.mobi (which was one of the early examples of a .mobi
website).
Over time HTML
interfaces were added with the site generating pages optimised for a variety of mobile devices such as smart phones, PDAs, and tablets.
In 2009 dedicated applications for iPhone
/iPad/iPod, Android and WebOS were launched.
Wapedia offers the most recent version of every article, which is done by using a combination of a proxy
-like behavior and a local article database. This combination provides both high speed and up-to-date articles and low load and traffic for the Wikipedia servers. The copying of data is one way, from Wikipedia to Wapedia, and so Wapedia does not offer the ability to edit pages. Edits must be made to the original page on the Wikipedia site, which propagate through to Wapedia over time. For many Wapedia users on low-powered mobile devices, this is not an issue since their devices are unsuited to editing significant quanties of text.
Standard Wikipedia pages are typically too long for display on these devices, so long pages are divided into smaller chunks to fit into the small displays and the standard side navigation is removed. To reduce the bandwidth requirements, images are scaled down to the resolution of the mobile device. In addition, Wapedia includes a search engine that is independent from Wikipedia servers. Wapedia supports WML
and modern XHTML
Mobile formats, with an autodetection of the best format for each device. Articles are served from an independent article database.
Unlike many other mobile Wikipedia solutions, Wapedia injects adverts into the Wikipedia articles, either in the HTML or in the applications.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
. It was started in August 2004 by Florian Amrhein and is currently operated by Taptu
Taptu
Taptu is a social media and technology company that builds platforms, tools and applications that enable highly personalized creation, curation, recommendation, search, discovery, management, consumption and sharing of content across all personal screen-based devices, and most significantly on...
. Wapedia was originally a Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
(WAP) site for use on mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s of the very early 2000s. The URL for Wapedia is http://wapedia.mobi (which was one of the early examples of a .mobi
.mobi
The domain name mobi is a top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile, indicating its use by mobile devices for accessing Internet resources via the Mobile Web....
website).
Over time HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
interfaces were added with the site generating pages optimised for a variety of mobile devices such as smart phones, PDAs, and tablets.
In 2009 dedicated applications for iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
/iPad/iPod, Android and WebOS were launched.
Wapedia offers the most recent version of every article, which is done by using a combination of a proxy
Proxy server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...
-like behavior and a local article database. This combination provides both high speed and up-to-date articles and low load and traffic for the Wikipedia servers. The copying of data is one way, from Wikipedia to Wapedia, and so Wapedia does not offer the ability to edit pages. Edits must be made to the original page on the Wikipedia site, which propagate through to Wapedia over time. For many Wapedia users on low-powered mobile devices, this is not an issue since their devices are unsuited to editing significant quanties of text.
Standard Wikipedia pages are typically too long for display on these devices, so long pages are divided into smaller chunks to fit into the small displays and the standard side navigation is removed. To reduce the bandwidth requirements, images are scaled down to the resolution of the mobile device. In addition, Wapedia includes a search engine that is independent from Wikipedia servers. Wapedia supports WML
Wireless Markup Language
Wireless Markup Language , based on XML, is a markup language intended for devices that implement the Wireless Application Protocol specification, such as mobile phones. It provides navigational support, data input, hyperlinks, text and image presentation, and forms, much like HTML...
and modern XHTML
XHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
Mobile formats, with an autodetection of the best format for each device. Articles are served from an independent article database.
Unlike many other mobile Wikipedia solutions, Wapedia injects adverts into the Wikipedia articles, either in the HTML or in the applications.