Web tool puts new face on Wikipedia

The popularity of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is spawning a host of complementary tools and offshoots.

One of them is called Gollum, a free Web application that creator Harald Hanek describes as a Wikipedia “browser.” The tool provides an alternate, streamlined user interface for Wikipedia that puts the search feature front and center and allows for some customization.

“In my opinion the interface of Wikipedia is too overloaded and confusing,” Hanek says on the Gollum site. “So let’s get an easy to use interface.”

Hanek, who lives in Nuremberg, Germany, originally built the program for his daughter, as a faster, less complex way to interact with Wikipedia. He later released it to the public over the Web as an open-source project and recently introduced an English version of his site.

Full article: ZDNet News