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This article provides a detailed overview of Wikipedia's search feature, and instructions on using external search engines, such as Google, to find information. For a short introduction to searching Wikipedia, see Look it up.

Enter your keywords in the search box.

The "go" function uses an algorithm to decide what page you're likely to be interested in, and this usually masks its case sensitivity - but not always. For more details about this please see Wikipedia:Go button.

If your search terms include a common "stop word" (such as "the", "your", "more", "right", "while", "when", "who", "which", "such", "every", "about"), you may see many irrelevant results. Historically, these words could not be searched at all, but as of February 2006, Wikipedia's Lucene index does not use "stop words", so any word can be successfully used in search queries.

Be careful about limited wildcards, as they take a toll on the server. See Boolean fulltext search for details on their use.

In a search for a word with a diaeresis, such as Sint Odilinberg, it depends whether this is stored as one character or as "ë". In the first case one can simply search for Odilienberg (or Odilinberg); in the second case it can only be found by searching for Odili, euml and/or nberg. This is actually a bug that should be fixed -- the entities should be folded into their raw character equivalents so all searches on them are equivalent. See also Wikipedia:Special characters.

If a word appears in an article with single quotes, you can only find it if you search for the word with quotes. Since this is rarely desirable, it is better to use double quotes in articles for which this problem does not arise. See the manual of style for more info.

An apostrophe is identical to a single quote, therefore the name Mu'ammar can be found only by searching for exactly that (and not otherwise). A word with 's is an exception in that it can be found also by searching for the word without the apostrophe and the s.

A phrase can easily be found by enclosing it in double quotes. For example, "holly dolly" returns six matches; holly dolly (two standalone words) returns 197.

The search only applies to the namespaces selected in the user's preferences. To search the other namespaces check or uncheck the tickboxes in "Search in namespaces" box found at the bottom of a search results page. Depending on the browser, a box may still be checked from a previous search, but without being effective any longer! To make sure, uncheck and recheck it.

Searching the image namespace means searching the image descriptions, i.e. the first parts of the image description pages.

The source text (what one sees in the edit box, also called wiki text) is searched. This distinction is relevant for piped links, for interlanguage links (to find links to Chinese articles, search for zh, not for Zhongwen), special characters (if is coded as ê it is found searching for ecirc), etc.

For reasons of efficiency and priority, very recent changes are not always immediately taken into account in searches.

Special:Linksearch is a tool for searching for links from Wikipedia articles to sites outside Wikipedia. For example, all Wikipedia pages linking to Yahoo.com.

Recently, new internal search engines were created. These search engines can search Wikipedia articles, meanwhile they are user-friendly and are integrated into Wikipedia for a good experience. They aren't as good as external search engines though.

Various search engines can provide domain-specific searches, which let you search Wikipedia specifically. Searches are based on the text as shown by the browser, so wiki markup is irrelevant. Depending on your browser, you may also be able to use tools that allow you to search Wikipedia using bookmarklets.

In general, external search engines are faster than a Wikipedia search. However, because the search engine's cache is based on when the site was indexed, the search may not return newly created pages. Similarly, the search engine's cached version of the page will not be as up-to-date as the link to Wikipedia itself. Also, when returning Wikipedia articles in a regular search, mirrors and forks of Wikipedia content frequently rank higher than the actual Wikipedia articles because of search engine optimization techniques.

These issues may be less of a problem when using certain search engines that process Wikipedia differently:

By following the link below, you can use the Clusty search engine to search and cluster Wikipedia in English only.

If you frequently search via Clusty, consider installing the Clusty Toolbar (beta). Selecting the "Encyclopedia" search source allows you to quickly search the English version of Wikipedia. The Clusty Toolbar is available for Windows with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox (beta).

FUTEF is a site, currently in beta, limited to Wikipedia content. Besides basic keyword and full text search providing a list of relevant articles, it also lists related categories in a sidebar.

By following the links below, you can use the Google search engine to search Wikipedia - either all languages, or English-only. Google indexes all namespaces.

If you frequently search via Google, consider installing the Google Toolbar. Using the "search this site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of Wikipedia. The official Google Toolbar is available in versions for Firefox (Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows) and Internet Explorer (Microsoft Windows).

Wikipedia markup allows you to insert links to Google searches by including google: as the prefix for the link. This can sometimes be useful on talk pages. It is done like this:

Which looks like this:

Note: It is important not to use spaces in the search. To add more parameters to the search, separate them by a plus sign, +. For a phrase search, use a hyphen (minus sign), -, between each word. E.g. to search for "Tip of the day", use Tip-of-the-day.

To provide a link to a Wikipedia-specific search, include in the google-link +site:en.wikipedia.org (no spaces before or after), like this:

Which looks like this:

To clean up the link so that only the part you want to show is presented, use the pipe, like this:

Which makes it look like this:

LuMriX is a dynamic query tool which uses lookahead to predict search terms in a list, similar to Google Suggest.

By following the link below, you can use the LuMriX search engine to search different language versions of Wikipedia.

If you frequently search via LuMriX, consider installing the LuMriX Firefox Search Plugin (works on all operating system platforms for which Firefox is available, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).

There is a full-featured advanced search engine at Lycos UK. It is more powerful than Wikipedia's search box, and you can limit searches to a specific URL, such as the Wikipedia website. Here's how. Click on the provided link above, and then enter your search term. Then scroll down to the domain section and add "wikipedia.org" in the box provided. Then click "Go".

Qwika is designed specifically to index wikis. Its main index is Wikipedia and includes:

This can assist editors contributing to non-English Wikipedias by being able to search in their own language across the entire English version and then view the machine-translated version in their language.

Wikiwax is a dynamic query like LuMriX. It only searches English Wikipedia, but shows more list entries.

By following the links below, you can use the Yahoo! search engine to search Wikipedia - either all languages or English-only.

If you frequently search via Yahoo!, consider installing the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Using the "Search Only the Current Site" button allows you to quickly search the English version of Wikipedia. The official Yahoo! Companion Toolbar is only for Windows with Internet Explorer and Mozilla.

Here are more Wikipedia:Tools which make searching more convenient.

Listed below are ways to search Wikipedia with Mozilla-based browsers, including Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape 6 and 7.

Works with: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 6/7.

Mozilla and Netscape 6 & 7 come with a sidebar that allows a user to search the Wikipedia site, and Firefox has a toolbar item to do the same. To install the search plugin that tells Mozilla how to search Wikipedia, do the following:

To make Wikipedia your default search engine in Mozilla, Beonex Communicator, and Netscape 6/7:

With Wikipedia selected as your default engine, searches can be conducted via the search sidebar tab, search box, or the web address bar.

Works with: Mozilla Suite, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 6/7, Beonex Communicator, Camino.

Wikipedia can also be searched via a custom keyword.

To search, go to the web address bar (Ctrl-L), enter "w SEARCH_QUERY" (without the quotes), and press Enter.

Many versions of Firefox include this wikipedia quicksearch by default, but use "wp SEARCH_QUERY

Note: This can also be done with Opera and Internet Explorer, see below.

Javascript can bring additional functionality to your bookmark. The following javascript can be pasted in as the 'Location' of a new bookmark created manually, for example in the 'Manage Bookmarks' window of Firefox. If you highlight a word in a webpage then hit the new bookmark, javascript grabs the word you have selected and uses that to perform the search. If no word is highlighted, you will be prompted to enter one.

javascript:x=escape(getSelection());if(!x)%7Bvoid(x=prompt('Enter%20Word:',''))%7D;if(x)window.location='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search='+x

The whole thing should be pasted in as a single line without spaces for it to work.

To enable a quick search from the Windows and Internet Explorer Address bars, do the following

This will allow you to for example type "w french revolution" (without the quotes) into the Windows and Internet Explorer Address bars to immediately search Wikipedia for the search term you've specified.

Note: There are other URLs you can specify instead of the Default (@) key given above. For instance, the line

will search the German Wikipedia and

will use Google to search all language Wikipedias.

From version 9, Opera can automatically generate a custom search engine from any search box. To add a Wikipedia QuickSearch:

All Opera versions since v6 use a customizable text file called search.ini. This file should only be edited while Opera is not running.The following example replaces one of the existing pre-defined search engines. It is up to the user to avoid conflicts of shortcut key (key=). By default 'w' is taken by the download.com search, so either this or the Wikipedia one should be changed. Furthermore the 'Search Engine ##' should be replaced with a free number: '12' is free by default. The Search.ini editor (see link below, in the "More information" section) makes editing trivial.

K-Meleon has a search button that can be used to search Google. You can change it to search Wikipedia instead, by doing this:

user_pref("kmeleon.general.searchEngine", "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=");

Open up K-Meleon and press the search button to search Wikipedia. To go back to Google or to use another search service, edit prefs.js and delete the added line

Make sure K-Meleon is closed before editing prefs.js.

After downloading the Wikipedia:TomeRaider database one can search the Wikipedia version offline. One can also search for parts of words.

To search the text that appears only in the page history, you must export the text to XML format first.

If there is no appropriate page on Wikipedia, consider creating a page, since you can edit Wikipedia right now. Or consider adding what you were looking for to the Requested articles page. Or if you have a question, then see Where to ask questions, which is a list of departments where our volunteers answer questions, any question you can possibly imagine.

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Wikipedia:Searching - Wikipedia

After almost three years, access to Wikipedia was restored in Turkey two weeks ago, bringing to an end a lengthy political and legal drama that kept over 50 million Turkish residents from reading or editing the free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia in all languages was banned in Turkey in April 2017 after the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia refused requests by the Turkish government to change content in articles relating to Turkeys ties to ISIS and the Erdogan familys good name.

Haaretz revealed the following year that ahead of the ban, the Wikimedia Foundation, which as a matter of policy does not intervene in Wikipedias content, received demands to change the content in at least four articles, two relating to alleged ties between the Turkish government and ISIS, and one related to the financial dealings with ISIS of a family member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Over a million Turks visited Turkish-language Wikipedia the week after the ban was lifted, in the wake of a ruling by the countrys Constitutional Court, which deemed restriction of access to the online encyclopedia an infringement of human rights specifically, of freedom of expression.

Tellingly, it was not just Turkish readers who flocked back to Wikipedia, but also local editors who were offline for the past three years, and whose voice was all but absent from the Turkish version of the collaborative encyclopedia during that period. Since access was restored, the local community has been keeping itself busy, and the most active article (in terms of editing and internal discussion) in Turkish Wikipedia the week after access was restored was the main entry for Wikipedia itself, followed by the article dealing with why it was banned. The list of most-active articles also included those about Qassem Soleimani, about Erdogan and about jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah calan. The entry for calans militant Kurdistan Workers Party, which is viewed, like the leader himself, as terrorist by the authorities, was among the most edited articles.

However, in an example of the real toll taken by local restrictions on internet access (in a 2018 report, Freedom House deemed Turkeys internet not free, with many websites and social media platforms being regularly banned), many of the Wikipedia articles that have been seeing a surge in activity relate to nonpolitical and uncontroversial topics. For example, among the first articles to be created after bans lifting were entries about American football player Colin Kaepernick and soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Moreover, many of the particularly active articles had a distinctly local flavor such as that for Turkish author and political activist Rahsan Ecevit, and Turkish painter Tamer Sahinoglu. Another article that was recently created about a hit Turkish TV show that began airing following imposition of the ban highlights how blocking Wikipedia can exact a price first and foremost on local knowledge.

While English and Spanish Wikipedia enjoy a wide and diverse community of editors, smaller, localized Wikipedias including the Hebrew and Turkish versions tend to have a national, if not nationalistic bias. In many senses, Hebrew Wikipedia is more Israeli then Hebraic, and Turkish Wikipedia is, well, Turkish. In this sense, Turkeys decision to ban Wikipedia may have inadvertently served the cause of Turkish nationals living abroad who are more critical of the regime, because they were still free to write and add content to entries in the Turkish Wikipedia.

This is ironic, considering Ankaras official reason for the ban in the first place. It claimed that Wikipedia was involved in a smear campaign against the regime and its war efforts in Syria and against the Kurds. Turkeys communications authority sent the San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation requests to change the content in a number of different articles, two of them, as reported by Haaretz in 2018, concerning allegations that Turkey was indirectly supporting ISIS as part of its battle against Kurds in the border region with Syria. Another entry concerned allegations that Erdogans son-in-law had overseen deals involving oil extracted from fields that were under ISIS control at the time. The last article is perhaps most telling: Turkey demanded that Ataturk, the modern states founding father, be removed as one of the examples of an enlightened dictator, in an article on that topic.

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The Wikimedia Foundation explained, in its response to the Turks, that the content in its articles is determined by a community of local, volunteer editors who are required to abide by certain strict, universal editorial policies (for example, providing a source for every claim). But Turkey refused to be placated, and, invoking a law intended to protect national security, blocked access to the encyclopedia in all its versions in April 2017.

In response, the WMF took Turkey to the European Court for Human Rights, while also filing suit in the countrys constitutional court, which ruled three weeks ago that access must be restored. According to senior WMF sources, Ankara accepted the courts ruling and agreed to implement it a few days later, in an attempt to stave off a ruling later this month by the European Court, where the case has now been rendered moot.

According to Turkish editors, the prohibition on access to the encyclopedia exacted a heavy, albeit hard-to-quantify price on the local Wikipedia, with an effect more cultural than political. According to Firat Ozak, a local editor, most of the more active editors had no problem circumnavigating the ban by using a VPN. However, Ozak added, The most important thing Turkish Wikipedia has lost was the edits from local IP addresses. What we missed most was random people updating small things, like the name of the new mayor of a small village or the number of yellow cards in a Turkish soccer league. These edits have less controversy and are less sexy, and can be easily forgotten.

Continued here:
Erdogan's censorship efforts fail, and Turks are flocking back to Wikipedia - Haaretz

As a resurgence in the Mori language continues to gain traction, a homegrown campaign is starting for one of the worlds largest websites to follow suit, and adopt the use of macrons, a cornerstone of Mori.

Christchurch man Axel Wilke said the use of macrons in New Zealand English is changing fast, with print and television media, as well as much of central and local government routinely adopting them.

A macron is used in te reo to indicate long vowels, and although Wikipedia currently adopts macrons for many words including the word Mori itself it does not use them for place names, long a bone of contention in New Zealand.

Wikipedia rules have, for years, stated that place names were under discussion, and macrons have not been used in the meantime for place names, said Wilke.

Wilke is proposing to change Wikipedias naming conventions and update hundreds of place names on the website. Wilke says this would be in accordance with the New Zealand Geographic Board, which in 2019 reported that 824 Mori place names had been made official, and about 300 place names now include a macron.

If the campaign is successful, those place names would be updated on Wikipedia. But this is not the first time the proposal has been raised. It was initially discussed as early as 2007, and a campaign to bring in the use of macrons ultimately failed in 2018 after debate over the spelling of Paekkriki, a small town on the Kpiti coast, turned nasty, and sparked a national debate about the usage of macrons in the modern day.

This would mark a big change for Wikipedia, said Wilke.

Wikipedia, through years of discussion and debate, has accumulated layers and layers of rules, guidelines, precedents, and style guides.

Wilkes proposal is supported by Mike Dickison, a former Wikipedian-at-large and the first for New Zealand who said it the campaign is successful a massive renaming project lies ahead.

In the last decade te reo has undergone a resurgence in New Zealand, with long waiting lists for classes around the country and many high profile Kiwis learning and incorporating the language into their everyday speech including the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Read more:
Wikipedia urged to add accents to Mori placenames amid resurgence in te reo - The Guardian

Former New Zealand Wikipedian-at-large Mike Dickison walks us through the slow process of language change on the worlds fifth-most-viewed website, Wikipedia.

Consequently, macrons have quickly spread through publishing and media, spurred by the 2016 Mori Language Act which aimed to revitalise the language and make government departments use it correctly. Almost all news media use macrons, with Stuff starting in 2017 and the NZ Herald in 2018. The Listener, North & South, and Metro adopted macrons in 2018, along with TVNZ. But one of the last bastions of macron resistance for place names is Wikipedia the worlds fifth-most-viewed website. Thats a concern, and some Kiwi Wikipedians want to change this.

Currently Wikipedia is inconsistent. "Mori" is spelled with a macron, and the article "New Zealand pigeon" was recently renamed "Kerer". Place names, though, are a different story. When the style guide for New Zealand English usage on Wikipedia was thrashed out back in 2006, macrons weren't in common use and it was noted the "rules of Maori place names are still under discussion" and there they've remained for 14 years.

Christchurch-based Axel Wilke has put forward a proposal to change those naming conventions to allow macron use for geographic features, based on official names maintained by by the New Zealand Geographic Board. Many place names aren't actually "official", and deciding whether they actually need a macron can involve a lengthy discussion with iwi and hap about what the name means. But in June last year the Board knuckled down and made 824 Mori place names official, and about 300 of those like ptiki, Taup, and Trau use macrons.

If Wilke's proposal is adopted, nearly 300 place names on Wikipedia will need to be updated. Not all those 300 places will have an article on Wikipedia but they'll be mentioned in numerous other articles, and the cascading consequences will require thousands of corrections. This would mark a big change for New Zealand Wikipedia, and the 100200 busy volunteers who keep it up to date in their spare time. Hence there's been some resistance.

"Under discussion" since 2007, the macron debate bubbled to the surface on a Wikipedia noticeboard in 2018 over the appropriate name for Paekkriki / Paekakariki; thousands of words of back-and-forth discussion ensued, even leaking out into the NZ Herald which wrote about Wikipedia's "battle of the macrons", but no real consensus emerged. What was needed was a clear, well-supported proposal to put to the vote, and thats whats happening now.

You might think some editorial board could just declare most New Zealand publications use macrons, so now all Wikipedia articles will too. But Wikipedia change happens through long public discussions on Wikipedia talk pages, and anyone can contribute. Discussions go on and on until consensus is thrashed out. Through 19 years of discussion and debate, Wikipedia has accumulated layers and layers of rules, guidelines, precedents, and style guides, often with cryptic names like WP:COMMONNAME and MOS:DIACRITICS. Youre expected to be familiar with them if you want to contribute, and any proposed changes have to take them into account. All this is invisible to people who just use Wikipedia to look things up, but affects the work thousands of volunteer Wikipedia editors do every day.

If, following discussion, this change is approved, it will bring Wikipedia into line with the way New Zealand English has changed. Years ago, Pkeh used to talk about Maoris and kakapos. Because theres no plural s in Te Reo, New Zealand English usage slowly started using the same word for singular and plural, and now we look a bit askance at someone who talks about the Maoris. Macron usage is making the same journey, to Mori and kkp, and Wikipedia, the world's reference book, looks like it's coming along for the ride.

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Go here to read the rest:
Why changing Mori place names on one of the world's biggest websites isn't so simple - Noted

Sunday, 26 January 2020, 11:44 amPress Release: Axel Wilke

The use of macrons in New Zealand English is changing fast.Print and television media, local and central government,they have almost all adopted the macron to indicate longvowels in Mori. Macrons are important: a wt is aninsect, but weta is excrement. Many places inAotearoa now use macrons in their names. But one of the lastbastions of macron resistance for place names is Wikipedia,one of the worlds most-viewed websites. Thats aconcern, and some Kiwi Wikipedians want to change this.

Macrons have been used in Wikipedia for some time: everyuse of the word Mori has its macron, and articlesare increasingly adopting macrons in their names: the NewZealand pigeon article was recently renamed Kerer. But place names have alwaysbeen a sticking point. For some reason, people feelespecially attached to towns and rivers, and resist changingtheir spelling. This applies in the real world see thekerfuffle over the h in Whanganui and the in Taup and its no different in Wikipedia. Wikipedia rules have,for years, stated that place names were underdiscussion, and macrons have not been used in themeantime for place names.

Wikipedia is written byvolunteers, all over the world, including quite a few in NewZealand. Theres no editorial board or committee thatdecides on the formatting or spelling rules and guidelines those have been thrashed out by the volunteersthemselves over the last 19 years, and continue to beamended and improved. Change happens through long publicdiscussions on Wikipedia talk pages, and anyone cancontribute.

Christchurch-based Axel Wilke has putforward a proposal to change Wikipedias namingconventions where geographic features contain a macron,based on gazette notices by the New Zealand GeographicBoard. Mike Dickison, who was New ZealandWikipedian at Large in 201819, is helping.

In June 2019, the New Zealand Geographic Boardreported that 824 Mori place names had been made official,and about 300 place names now include a macron.

If the proposal is adopted, nearly 300 place names onWikipedia would thus be changed to show the macron in thepage title and throughout the text (note that not all 300places will have an article on Wikipedia yet).

Thiswould mark a big change for Wikipedia. The idea was firstraised on Wikipedia discussion pages in 2007 with no clearconsensus. In 2018, a great debate broke out about theappropriate name for Paekkriki / Paekakariki; thousandsof words of back-and-forth discussion ensued, even leakingout into The New Zealand Herald, which wrote aboutWikipedia's "battle of the macrons". Later in 2018,the discussion was revived, but no real consensus emerged.In none of these cases was a clear, well-supported proposalset out and put to the vote. Thats whats happeningnow.

You might think it would be an easy thing tojust declare Most New Zealand publications use macrons,so now all Wikipedia articles will too. But Wikipedia,through years of discussion and debate, has accumulatedlayers and layers of rules, guidelines, precedents, andstyle guides. They often have cryptic names like WP:COMMONNAME and MOS:DIACRITICS; youre expected to befamiliar with them if you want to contribute, and anyproposed changes have to take them into account. All this isinvisible to people who just use Wikipedia to look thingsup, but affects the work thousands of volunteer Wikipediaeditors do every day. Thats why this proposed rulechange, which will affect hundreds of articles and requirethousands of changes, is such a big deal.

If thechange is approved, it will bring Wikipedia into line withthe way New Zealand English has changed. Years ago, we allused to talk about Maoris and kakapos. Becausetheres no plural s in the Mori language, Englishspeakers in New Zealand began using the same word forsingular and plural, and now we might look askance atsomeone who talks about Maoris. More recently, macronshave crossed over from Te Reo into New Zealand English, andrapidly spread through the media, book publishing, legaldocuments, government, and education, which increasingly nowrefer to Mori and kkp. This has been aremarkable and swift change, reaching critical mass only acouple of years ago. So its understandable that Wikipediahas taken some time to catchup.

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Macrons and Wikipedia - Scoop.co.nz