Get More from Wikipedia: 10 Tips and Tricks

1. Change How Wikipedia's Main Page Looks

You can change the way Wikipedia's main page displays -- choose from a variety of funalternatives, like "classic" or simplified versions, different color schemes and even site-skins to mix things up a bit.

Once you're logged into the site, just add a snippet of code to your page and you can enjoy one of the different versions permanently.

2. Wikipedia and Google Maps

Did you know there's a Wikpedia layer for Google Maps? To see all Wikipedia articles for an area, click on the menu at the top right of your Google Map and select "Wikipedia." The map will display all articles that relate to that specific area.

3. View a Page's History

All Wikipedia pages' edits are saved, and the site makes it easy to view changes.

If you're interested in seeing a page's history, simply click the "View history" tab on the top right of any page. As well as seeing recent edits, you can click "Compare selected revisions" to see then-and-now versions of the content.

4. Read the "Tip of the Day"

Did you know that Wikipedia offers an official "Tip of the Day?"

You can bookmark it here, or readinstructions that detail how to add it to your Wikipedia page.

5. Get Better at Searching

Enhance Wikipedia's search functionalitywith a few simple tricks.

As well as the usual search tricks, such as double quotes or hyphens (to exclude results), try a couple of useful characters on Wikipedia.

To perform a wildcard search, add an asterisk (*) to a search term -- Wikipedia will pull up all results pertaining to the word. Add a tilde (~) to access "fuzzy" search results -- handy if you're unsure of exact spelling.

6. See a Page's View Stats

You can view a Wikipedia page's stats (how many views it has received over 30, 60 and 90 days) through the "View history" tab at the top right of the page. Then hit "Page view statistics."

7. Make a Wikipedia Book

Collate Wikipedia articles into a book by clicking on "Create a book" under the "Print/Export" menu on the left-hand side of the page.

Then, add any Wikipedia articles to your book.

Once you've finished collating, you can choose to download your creation as a PDF, or get it printed through Wikimedia's print partner, PediaPress.

8. Go Mobile

The "lite" version of Wikipedia is specially designed for viewing on mobile devices.

Rather than head for the usual URL, load uphttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/ instead -- it's a much speedier option for quick reference on-the-go.

9. View a Page Without All the Links

If you find the dozens of links in a Wikipedia article distracting, there's a quick way to read a page without them.

Simply click on "Printable version" under the "Print/export" menu for a page that's much easier to read.

10. All Pages Lead to Philosophy

Finally, we have a fun trick for you. Did you know that nearly 95% of English language Wikipedia pages eventually lead to an article about philosophy?

Load up any article, then, ignoring links in brackets or italics, click on the first link in the article. Repeat this enough times and you should end up on the philosophy page. Spooky.