Behind the Scenes of Wikipedia's Page Previews: A Journey of Innovation and Collaboration

The article discusses the development of the "page previews" feature on Wikipedia, which allows users to see a brief summary and visual thumbnail of a linked article when they hover over a link. This feature, while seemingly simple, took several years to develop due to challenges like choosing appropriate thumbnails, generating accurate summaries from raw wikitext, and ensuring proper localization and design. The author emphasizes the importance of community collaboration and feedback throughout the process, as well as the robust testing and scaling of the API necessary to handle the high traffic of up to half a million hits per minute. Ultimately, the piece reflects on the diligence, creativity, and teamwork required to implement a feature that enhances user interaction with the vast information available on Wikipedia.

Key Points:

• Launch of the "page previews" feature on Wikipedia took several years to develop.
• Challenges included selecting appropriate thumbnails and generating accurate summaries from millions of wikitext pages.
• The need for careful design consideration to accommodate HTML elements, particularly in scientific articles.
• Significant reliance on community feedback to refine the feature before its release.
• The API had to be scaled to accommodate high traffic, seeing up to 500,000 hits per minute.
• Emphasis on privacy and avoiding third-party tracking in data evaluation.
• Continuous improvement is planned as the team aims to enhance the user experience further.
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