The Internet encyclopedia with more than 3 million articles is often a subject of debate. Many people question its reliability although some studies indicate accuracy of the content and writing style in Wikipedia articles. Still, Wikipedia remains one of the most popular websites even though the original idea of universal collaboration has changed (see an interesting article on this topic). Students would use it anyway, so, ban it or teach them how to use it?

There are loads of interesting web applications based on the Internet encyclopedia. Here are a few ones (first two are recommended for learners of English).

1. Simple English Wikipedia is recommended for beginners (children or even adults) because of the simple grammar and vocabulary they use. Concise information written in short sentences, easy to read and understand.

2. VisWiki is the formerly known as Visual Wikipedia. It is an entertaining way to discover encyclopedic information and much more. Related videos, a word cloud with related terms, external search options (Flickr, Google, Yahoo!) are some of the extras. You don’t have to leave the main page if you want to see a related article. Hover the mouse pointer over the highlighted word and the article will appear in a pop-up window.

3. EyePlorer is a “graphic knowledge engine.” You can enter a term into the search box and in seconds you’ll have an eye-like chart containing concepts related to your search. Simply hover the mouse over a term and short definitions based on Wikipedia will appear in a pop-up window. Watch the introduction video to learn more about eyePlorer:

4. MusicPortl is a mashup of Wikipedia biographies of music artists and photos from Flickr, recent blog posts and other information related to their music and discography.

Do you know other interesting Wikipedia mashups?