Hi, here's a link to a proposal I have for adding visual search to Wikipedia: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Use_visual_search_frontend_for_Wikipedia via user tomasohara [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tomasohara] I can move it into a better location if desired as it as not a "sister project" proper. The Proposals for new projects page [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects] doesn't offer suggestions for alternative postings, so I left it there for now.

Below is a copy of the project overview. See the link above for details on how this can be applied to foreign language wikipedias. Note that most can be supported right "out of the box" except for the text categorization used to select images for documents without images. A Wikipedia-specific way to do this might be possible (e.g., based on the hierarchy of pages). Otherwise, this is something I intend to do for the top languages on the web. (Perhaps some grant can be acquired to do most of the rest, requiring about 40 hours per language.)

Best, Tom

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It would be good for Wikipedia to use a general-purpose visual search front end. Note that a big incentive for this is that users will be drawn to Wikipedia to use this type of search rather than Google Search or Bing. This would be good because these search engines often show Wikipedia content for popular entities like sports stars or tourist attractions, which cuts down on Wikipedia traffic.

You will be able to use the visual search frontend I developed without charge for the duration of my patent in the works (a la license free). Here is a simple example with Wikipedia search on left and my Scrappy Search on right (i.e., white vs. tan backgrounds): http://www.scrappycito.com/wikipedia-vs-scrappy-search-small-dog-breeds-en-w...

Two other examples illustrate some added benefits of this visual search with respect to Wikipedia. First, disambiguation becomes based on images and keywords rather than just snippets of text. See the following: http://www.scrappycito.com/wikipedia-vs-scrappy-search-bob-jones-en-wiki-sit...

In addition, links to other pages for the same entity become much more engaging: http://www.scrappycito.com/wikipedia-vs-scrappy-search-taylor-swift-en-wiki-...

See http://www.scrappycito.com for the stable version of the system and http://www.tomasohara.trade:9330 for the work-in-progress version. The latter has support for handheld devices and also better aesthetics (n.b., version used in examples).

I think this will be extremely popular with the Instagram crowd and younger users in general (e.g., younger than 30). To do similar Wikipedia-specific searches with the visual search front end, just add site:en.wikipedia.org to the query, as in following example: Lionel Messi site:en.wikipedia.org

Scrappy Search uses the Google search API, so all of the search operators are supported. See https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en

The patent for this visual search will be owned by my company ScrappyCito, LLC. If the company gets acquired, I will require that they honor the license-free usage of the visual search system by Wikimedia for Wikipedia. (They will likewise be required to pass along this license-free usage requirement if they in turn are acquired, etc.). You will have access to the current source code for use in Wikipedia and other approved projects.

I am doing this both for exposure and because I want to help keep Wikipedia viable (e.g., by enabling higher traffic). This is a great way for users to browse the encyclopedia, so it can keep users on the Wikipedia domain longer.

If this sounds interesting, I can develop a prototype for the Simple English Wikipedia for use on one of my servers. After review, I can help with the deployment for the regular English Wikipedia on your servers once approved.

============================================================== Tom O'Hara, founder ScrappyCito, LLC. PO Box 6430 tomasohara@gmail.com Austin, TX 78762-6430 737-203-1577 www.scrappycito.com