Available in English Area served Worldwide | Founded 2013 Employees 10+ | |
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Type of business Private, Startup company Founder(s) Lior Grossman, Ilan Lewin | ||
Wikiwand is a proprietary software interface developed for viewing Wikipedia articles available for several popular web browsers as a free browser extension or mobile app.
Contents
History
Wikiwand (originally WikiWand) was founded in 2013 by Lior Grossman and Ilan Lewin. Officially launched in August 2014, the interface includes a sidebar menu, navigation bar, personalized links to other languages, new typography, and access to previews of linked articles. The list of contents is constantly displayed on the left-hand side.
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 (large blocks of small text), hard to navigate, and lacking in terms of usability."
Availability
The interface is available on Chrome, Safari (Safari version is not available for download) and Firefox as well as via Wikiwand's website. In March 2015, Wikiwand released an iOS app for iPhone and iPad.
Funding
Wikiwand was able to raise $600,000 to support the development of the interface. It has stated that it intends to donate 30% of its profits to the Wikimedia Foundation.