The best online encyclopedias, according to hackers
7 online encyclopedias recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.
- Most recommendedWikipedia404 people recommend it
- Least regretStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy10 recommend, 0 criticize
All online encyclopedias
- WikipediaA free, volunteer-built, downloadable encyclopedia with sourcing rules and open moderation that's invaluable as a starting point, though critics say contentious political topics are biased or manipulated.404recommend
- GrokipediaRecommended as a comprehensive, easy-to-correct alternative to Wikipedia. Most common caveat: critics call it ideologically biased and prone to errors.52recommend
- Local WikipediaShows Wikipedia articles near your location, which people enjoy for discovering local history. Critics say the radius is not really a half-hour walk and results are thin outside large English-speaking areas.45recommend
- Britannica11.orgA free, fast online version of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica that people enjoy browsing and find nostalgic. Critics note search and rendering errors.14recommend
- WikidataA free, community-edited knowledge base of structured data linking entities like books, species and companies by shared identifiers, queryable with SPARQL. Coverage is uneven and varies by topic.13recommend
- WiktionaryPeople recommend Wiktionary for its broad coverage of word meanings and for being a quick, usually reliable answer to word questions. Critics say it is not always accurate, and some entries contradict each other.12recommend
- Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyFree, scholarly online encyclopedia of philosophy that people use as a starting point, more substantive than Wikipedia for philosophy topics.10recommend