About EncycloReader

EncycloReader is a web application designed for searching multiple online encyclopedias at once, and reading them in the common presentation standard. Search can be performed in about 30 million articles from encyclopedias with different publication policies and languages. Some of the major encyclopedias are shown here:

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Articles from the MediaWiki platform are best supported. Unlike general web search engines that deal with very diverse web resources, this resource is focused on encyclopedic content. Search results of EncycloReader are not distorted by advertisements and various search-engine optimization (SEO) methods to attract visitors. This ensures a sufficient decentralization and unbiased representation of search results.

Technology

The EncycloReader uses "an adaptive and evolving" mechanisms for article searches. Searches are performed by accessing search metadata of online encyclopedias directly, or by using cached data created by the readers. The more searches are performed, the more precise and quicker answer one should get. The software does not implement a web scraping or similar automated data-extraction technology designed to populate its internal search database.

Encyclosphere network

Articles viewed in EncycloReader are sent to the Encyclosphere network. You are welcome to download, host and share such articles as described here. EncycoReader articles cannot be removed, but you are welcome to improve them using the external encyclopedias that host original versions of such articles, or create new articles. They are updated in the network after viewing in EncycloReader.

Support

If you would like to support the Encycloreader project, please use this link for donations.

Privacy notice

We are committed to protecting your right to privacy. This resource does not collect personal information (like the IP address).

Version history

Version 1.0 (Sep 10, 2021): First release using FactSeek components.
Version 1.1 (Oct 05, 2021): Improvements in reader views.
Version 1.2 (Nov 22, 2021): Internal search based on ZWI files.
Version 1.3 (Dec 14, 2021): Connected to the Encyclosphere network.
Version 1.4 (May 21, 2022): Added user preferences for external links.
Version 1.5 (July 24, 2022): More options for preferences, improved description.
Version 1.6 (August 7, 2022): Fuzzy search, Britannica 11ed, options to deselect encyclopedias in "Preferences".
Version 1.7 (October 10, 2022): 0.5 million articles, 3 historic encyclopedias, highlighted search terms and security patches.
Version 1.8 (June 11, 2023): Supports 12 languages (af, ar, bn, hi, de, fr, es, ru, pt, zh, it, ja), leading to 30 million articles in total. ZWI files can be downloaded using the links below each article. ZWI files signed using PSQR:DID.
Version 1.9 (July 19, 2023): EncycloReader includes monitoring tool which checks the online status of supported encyclopedias. If some encyclopedia is offline, EncycloReader switches to the offline view of articles ("ZWI view") which allows reading articles even for encyclopedias which are not accessible. The number of viewable articles in the case of "ZWI View" depends on the number of ZWI files created by EncycloReader during the normal operation (about 1.5 millions on July 19, 2023).
Version 2.0 (August 1, 2023): A language selector on the main page. The default option is "autodetect" - a method based on on the Nito-ELD algorithm by Nito T.M. (Apache License 2.0) that uses trained Naive Bayes network. If the language is not detected correctly, the EncycloReader switches to the "All language" option. An additional option in preferences was added to convert all articles to the locally stored ZWI from the Encyclosphere.
Version 2.1 (September 4, 2023): New design + logo. Dictionary lookups when selecting a word or phrase (desktop only). An article can be bookmarked. Tips of the day. Many bug fixes.