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Wikipedia publishes 2-millionth article in English

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN FRANCISCO, US: Wikipedia published its 2-millionth article in the English language version of the anyone-can-edit encyclopedia, a symbolic milestone for the world's largest user-generated Web publishing site.

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Wikipedia, the sixth most visited network of Web sites worldwide behind commercial operators Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and eBay, is available in 250 languages. Combined, Wikipedia has published more than eight million articles.

On Sept. 10, an article on "El Hormiguero," a popular Spanish TV show, was created by Wikipedia contributor Zzxc to become the 2 millionth article in the English Wikipedia. The article is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Hormiguero/

Since the reference project started in 2001, more than 100,000 registered users have made at least 10 edits each to Wikipedia articles, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organization that operates Wikipedia.

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The English version of Wikipedia alone has signed up 3.4 million volunteer contributors. The German and French editions of the Wikipedia, the next two largest sites, each have more than half a million articles.

Nine other language sites each have more than 100,000 articles. It has also offers versions in less common languages ranging from South Africa's Xhosa language to the hybrid Esperanto.

Wikipedia articles can be constantly improved upon because they are based on group-editing "wiki" software. A study this year by the Hewlett Packard Information Dynamics Laboratory found that the best articles on Wikipedia are those that have been edited most frequently, by the largest number of people.  

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