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Notices tagged with wikipedia
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How to add Google News, Google Books, and Google Scholar search directly in your browser, to search those sites with fewer steps, and less chance of being distracted.
One of my hobbies is contributing to Wikipedia, and more so, creating new Wikipedia articles. Citations of reliable sources are key to both good contributions, and new articles, especially in making them stick (not get reverted/deleted).
I use Google News to search for citations, and depending on the topic, sometimes Google Books and Google Scholar.
Unfortunately, to search Google News, you have to first go to Google News (news.google .com - deliberately unlinked here), upon which you are immediately shown distracting (if not dire) news photos, headlines etc. which present a non-trivial challenge to staying focused.
If only there was a way to directly search Google News from your browser search box / address bar (like you can search Wikipedia from your browser).
Unfortunately, there is no site-specific search option for Google News (like there is for YouTube, e.g. see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-or-remove-search-engine-firefox#w_add-search-engines) that you can select an add to your browser in one click (enabled by OpenSearch support, link in footer).
This is another technology I use for category 2 (defending focus) that I mentioned in my previous post on focus.
Steps to add a Google News search option to Firefox:
1. open Firefox Preferences ("Firefox" menu, "Preferences" item)
2. select "🔍 Search" from the left column
3. scroll down to "Search Shortcuts"
4. click the "Add" button under the list of search engines which opens a dialog
5. enter "Google News" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
6. enter "https://news.google.com/search?q=%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
7. enter "gn" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
The dialog should look like this:
8. click (Add Engine)
Now you can go to your address bar, type in "gn " (without the quotes), your news search term or phrase, e.g. "Broken Arrow Skyrace", and press return to directly see search results.
Similarly for Google Books, follow the same steps except:
5. enter "Google Books" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
6. enter "https://books.google.com/books?q=%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
7. enter "gb" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
And similarly for Google Scholar:
5. enter "Google Scholar" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
6. enter "https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
7. enter "gs" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
Thanks to folks in the #indieweb informal chat who reminded me (when I complained about the distracting Google News home page) of this way to add new site-specific search capabilities to the browser even for sites (or subsites) without explicit OpenSearch support.
Looking forward to using these capabilities to more quickly find citations for updating and creating new Wikipedia articles.
Previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/158/t2/three-insights-improving-focus
* https://tantek.com/2024/287/t2/setup-search-shortcuts-firefox
OpenSearch FYI:
* https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/XML/Guides/OpenSearch
#focus #Wikipedia #Firefox #GoogleNews #GoogleBooks #GoogleScholar #search #siteSearch #AddSearchEngine #searchEngine #searchEngines #OpenSearch #webSearch #SearchShortcuts #browserTip #FirefoxTip #searchTip
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Wikipedia “Edited” 2025 year in review, summarizing from Wikimedia XTools queries, and Wikipedia itself, curated manually for my personal site:
* 7 articles created (new personal best), with several firsts for me. In creation order:
* "Take California" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_California) — first music related
* "West Coast Health Alliance" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Health_Alliance) — first health related
* "Northeast Public Health Collaborative" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Public_Health_Collaborative)
* "RaptureTok" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RaptureTok) — first hashtag article
* "Governors Public Health Alliance" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governors_Public_Health_Alliance)
* "Stephanie D'Agostini" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_D%27Agostini) — first comedian
* "Mic Drop Comedy" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mic_Drop_Comedy) — first comedy club
* 2 Category: articles created — first ever for me. In creation order:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2025_establishments_in_Hawaii
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2025_establishments_in_Maryland
* 28 redirects created: https://xtools.wmcloud.org/pages/en.wikipedia.org/Tantek/all/onlyredirects
and
* 1 image uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2025-12-11-stefdag.jpg?photo
In total:
* 272 edits (not counting User: page edits) across Wikipedia and Wikimedia commons
* 229 main Wikipedia articles edits
* 39 Talk: page edits
* 2 Category: page edits (above-mentioned articles created)
* 2 Wikipedia Commons edits
* 329 edits and contributions counting User: page edits: https://xtools.wmcloud.org/globalcontribs/Tantek/all///2025-12-31T01:36:35Z?limit=330
This is my first time posting a Wikipedia “Edited” year in review, despite having edited Wikipedia for 20+ years (https://tantek.com/2025/300/t20/wikipedia-editing-anniversary).
While this #indieweb version of a year in review was fun to make and look back on, since all the data is public, there’s an opportunity here for a service (perhaps another XTool: https://xtools.wmcloud.org/) or open source project to create such a summary for any Wikipedia editor.
Beyond a nicer presentation than plain text lists and numbers, such a summary could include visuals like a graphs of some of these stats over time, like Wikipedia pages created or edits of various kinds each year.
Until then, I encourage everyone editing Wikipedia to make their own “Edited” (I made that up, feel free to pick a better term) year in review and post it on your personal site! Feel free to re-use any of the design or separation of numbers that I chose, or make up your own.
This is post 7 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #yearInReview #Wikipedia #WikipediaEdited #Wikimedia #WikimediaCommons #XTools
← https://tantek.com/2026/006/t1/2025-people-projects-insights-creations
→ 🔮
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Saturday was my 20th #Wikipedia editing anniversary.
I have created:
* over 25 content articles (that have survived), averaging just over 1 per year
* over 100 redirects to make it easier to find pages, and to find topics which are only documented as sections of existing pages.
This year I’ve created five content articles (so far). Most recently:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governors_Public_Health_Alliance
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RaptureTok
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Public_Health_Collaborative
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Health_Alliance
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_California
I have had quite the range of experiences editing and creating articles.
Many of my contributions to pages eventually disappeared after iterative edits or outright rewrites. I have seen repetitive wiki edits, repeatedly undoing changes made.
I have also seen others build on my edits, sometimes taking a correction I made and expanding upon it, with more citations, more details, or both.
Over time I learned various techniques, or patterns for editing, especially for creating new pages, to increase their chances of survival, while also discouraging vandalism or other attacks. I have found ways of writing that somehow get other editors to show up and help defend articles.
If I could summarize it in a few words, I'd say aim for short, boring, and factual content (with high-quality citations). New articles work best when they’re similar to and based on existing well-established articles, no matter how small.
I have learned that it is possible to defend the accuracy of an article even if you are outnumbered, by accurately documenting erroneous additions or changes on the article’s :Talk page, along with calm and thorough refutation of those erroneous additions. Doing so makes it much easier to revert any similar changes, and point to the pre-existing analysis on the :Talk page to discourage repetitive edits.
Wikipedia has a fascinating set of rules, guidelines, and mechanisms for working in the open, and especially in the context of attacks by all sorts of bad actors, whether griefers, or politicians and businesses scrubbing (or self-promoting) their image.
I found this article on Wikipedia’s systems and their resilience particularly inspiring:
* https://www.theverge.com/cs/features/717322/wikipedia-attacks-neutrality-history-jimmy-wales
I believe every open source project and open standards organization can learn from how Wikipedia works and thrives, especially in the face of antagonists large and small. I certainly have.
If you do not have a Wikipedia account, I recommend creating one and using it to edit so you too can learn firsthand. Make an account, then browse your areas of interest or expertise to see if you can find pages to improve. Be bold.
I was proud to add the 20 year editor badge to my User page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:User_Twenty_Year_Society
It’s never too late to start.
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Two anniversaries today: microformats (18y) and POSSE (11y).
Happy 18 years of https://microformats.org/ #microformats!
Most prominent this past year (again) has been the littlest #microformat that could:
rel=me — AKA #relme, now effectively the standard for #distributed #verification on the web:
* https://microformats.org/wiki/rel-me (originally introduced in 2004¹)
with support added in the past year for:
* #GitHub multiple rel-me links²
* #Wikipedia User page rel-me link³
, which is surprising since when it was conceived, the #IndieWeb community was in a period of very rapid innovation & iteration.
POSSE itself replaced a previous term, "POSE", short for “Publish Once Syndicate Everywhere”, which had only been around a year or two at most (I’m still looking for the first use of the "POSE" abbreviation for that meaning).
Since “publish once” was vague enough to include practices of publishing once on a social media silo, or in someone else’s garage⁵, we needed to clearly express the requirement to use your own site instead, first, as the source of your truth. Cross-posting to other sites & channels, is a second, optional step, ideally with a permalink linking back to your original post so viewers can easily discover and use your site.
That distinction was enough for POSSE to express a strong creator-owned-first publishing model that resonated and grew. Every time a silo shutdown⁶ at the end of its incredible journey⁷, removing posts & permalinks from the web, POSSE was there for people who were tired of losing their data, permalinks, & profiles, and wanted an alternative.
This is day 43 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb. #100Days
← Day 42: https://tantek.com/2023/160/t1/mastodon-activitypub-follow-form-bridgy-fed
→ 🔮
Glossary
permalink
https://indieweb.org/permalink
POSE
https://indieweb.org/POSE
POSSE
https://indieweb.org/POSSE
silo
https://indieweb.org/silo
References
¹ https://gmpg.org/xfn/11#me
² https://tantek.com/2023/032/t1/years-relmeauth-replace-openid
³ https://tantek.com/2023/139/t1/wikipedia-supports-indieweb-rel-me
⁴ https://tantek.com/2012/173/t1/posse-core-indieweb-approach
⁵ https://tantek.com/2023/001/t1/own-your-notes
⁶ https://indieweb.org/site-deaths
⁷ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
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Wikipedia.org (@wikipedia@wikis.world @wikipedia) now supports #IndieWeb rel-me!¹
Thanks to @taavi.wtf (@taavi@wikis.world) for the #MediaWiki RealMe extension²
Added it to my #Wikipedia User: page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tantek
View source and you can see the #relMe on a link tag:
<link href="https://tantek.com/" rel="me">
Instructions to add yours here:
* https://indieweb.org/rel-me#Wikipedia
This is day 41 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb. #100Days
← Day 40: https://tantek.com/2023/114/t1/venues-reviews-personal-pages
→ 🔮
Previously:
* 2023-02-01 GitHub supports multiple rel=me links: https://tantek.com/2023/032/t1/years-relmeauth-replace-openid
¹ https://wikis.world/@wikipedia/110396865170645710
² https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:RealMe
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Just wrote a #Wikipedia stub article on @CindyLi:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Li_(designer)
Please review, make corrections, and add more notable references.
Also needs a good Creative Commons licensed photo. If you have one, please upload to Wikimedia Commons!
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♻ Silverwizard @HippyWizard: #Wikipedia #deletionists are actively stupid and pro-ignorance, it's the only explanation ¶ via #Twitter, 'cos his #Friendica instance is down https://twitter.com/HippyWizard/status/901572815668826117
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But not on #Wikipedia.
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And, funny thing, I've been a #Wikipedia editor maybe longer than some #deletionists have been alive! Any 15yo with a Del key can play
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@bobjonkman Yeah, #deletionists and the #deletion_wars they spark are one reason a lot of people don't contribute to #Wikipedia. I know they prevent a lot of spam and self-promotion, but they may be too aggressive sometimes.
otability / significance requirements often boil down to "I haven't heard of it before, so it must not be significant."
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Annoyed by #Wikipedia #deletionists. Created article on @KWLinuxfest, tagged "request for *speedy* deletion" in 3 hrs, gone 4 hours later
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@maloki It's a formal description of online "agents" (humans, machines, groups - the name is Friend Of A Friend and is designed to graph social relationships). Based on W3C "RDF" standard etc: http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/ and more on #Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_%28ontology%29
My #FOAF profile document (can be used as a seed to start crawling the !fediverse): https://social.umeahackerspace.se/mmn/foaf
I can't find @chimo's example visualisation right now unfortunately.
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The #Wikipedia #deletionists were the biggest complaint we had during a Q&A session in 2011 with then-Executive Director Sue Gardner. Nothing got changed, a Toronto Wikipedia users chapter was never set up, and shortly afterwards the Wikipedians mailing list was cancelled in favour of (Yahoo or Google) groups. I was never very active on Wikipedia, but after this even less so. https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelrusswurm/albums/72157650655305999
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Doing my part of the fight for a good, non-advertisement-driven #Wikipedia: https://social.umeahackerspace.se/url/49438
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Enligt #Wikipedia heter framstupa sidoläge numera "stabilt sidoläge". Tiderna förändras... https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabilt_sidol%C3%A4ge
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#Wikipedia says "Android 4.4.2 Kitkat via CyanogenMod 11 (GT-S5570, GT-S5570i)". Of course it might be "too new" (resource demanding) to run smoothly, but have you tried it yet?
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@lnxw48 Every time I edit #Wikipedia I have to learn it over again. When I looked at the page I was just going to fix vandalism …
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I always forget how hard it is to get my head into #wikipedia syntax. Time to go make some french onion soup for dinner #onabreak
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Seems I spent a whole day fleshing out @HarrisAuthor’s #Wikipedia page !CDNpoli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Harris_(journalist)
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Es gratuito y ¡seguro que está muy bien y se llena! Mis comentarios aquí http://qttr.at/or7 #Wikipedia #FIE2015 #conocimientolibre
Tantek
Former Bob Jonkman -- Please use the new server at https://gs.jonkman.ca
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
MMN-o ✅⃠
laurelrusswurm
Laura Arjona
All stadeus content and data are available under the 