Wikipedia prepares for Wikifacelift

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 29 March 2010 19:22

Your IT - Home IT

After many years, the Wikipedia website will finally be going Hollywood and getting a facelift for a 'more updated look and feel', a new editing toolbar, improvements to the wiki code and other changes.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that 'anyone can edit', is getting a facelift, as reported by the Wikimedia Foundation's news site, Wikinews.

As the Wikinews site notes, Wikipedia is 'one of the top 10 websites on the Internet', and during April, will receive the same 'skin' that is currently used on the Wikinews site, with the 'Wikimedia Commons' to get the changes from April 5th. 

Next up is a new toolbar to 'significantly ease common [editing] tasks', with both changes designed to 'encourage new people to edit and update content', with over 500,000 beta testers taking part in testing the new improvements.

In addition to the new graphical and editing look and feel, Wikinews says the Wikipedia's code 'will be improved, editors will be able to change tables data and other elements with an easy form, in addition to editing an article while watching it.'

There's more information at the Wikimedia blog, where we learn that 'all users will also see that the site layout has changed noticeably.'

The site navigation has been simplified, the search box has been relocated to 'satisfy user expectations and to follow other web standards', other clutter has been 'reduced' and the Wikimedia Foundation has ensured that 'the new features work with different resolutions, browser formats, and window sizings.'

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