Most of us, in fact, all of us, while watching Sherlock, would have marveled at his intellectual regime, especially when we watched the scene where he takes out his mobile and makes a quirky, quick search on something that eventually helps him solve the case. And although each of us has access to the internet and unlimited data, many of us find it difficult to imitate Sherlock– firstly because we cannot have a mind palace, secondly because we don’t use the internet in the way he does.
Let’s keep Sherlock aside for a while.
Mark Zuckerberg states that ‘In this world of fast-forwarding changes, only the biggest risks remain unchanged.’
We want easy access, instant information, less data consumption, and handy network services. Thus it is almost time to think about what’s next to Google.
People these days prefer handheld devices and use services provided through mobile applications more than websites. E-commerce giants like Flipkart are trying to shift towards applications completely. When Facebook bought Whatsapp, it ran a test to check the percentage of users using Whatsapp instead of Facebook. One night, for an hour, all Whatsapp servers went down. People went mad and came to Facebook to update statuses regarding this server shutdown.
What if a mobile application that is already popular worldwide provides a search engine feature?
That brings us to a new service that will be provided wholly through Whatsapp. In an attempt to bring this new service to Whatsapp, the app had crashed for an hour. It’s called ‘Wiki.’ Wiki acts as a mini search engine.
To enable Wiki in your Whatsapp, all you have to do is add that particular contact number to any of your groups. Once added, you will receive a message confirming that you have activated wiki services. Then the game begins.
- Features
Features of Wiki services range from a Search engine, News Updates, Quiz, Hangman game, Cricket updates, etc. There are still many more features that are yet to be explored.
Suppose you want to know about Blackhole, type ‘Wiki Black Hole’ and send it to the group. If you want to know about black arts, send ‘Wiki Black Arts.’ It gives a short description of almost anything and everything we search for, making it easy to read and understand the query in few seconds. If we search about any great personality, it gives us results and a picture of that personality.
It also provides its users to subscribe to channels for future updates.
Wiki keeps track of individual quiz scores and provides rankings based on them.
SUSPICION
Initially, people were afraid to use this feature because they thought that Whatsapp brought in this new feature to steal the information of its users. Adding an unknown contact number to our Whatsapp groups is like accommodating a thief and giving him a bed in our locker room. The fear is understandable. Wiki service is still very unreliable. Stakes are high that this service may be fraudulent.
Few even argue that this service is trying to make us addicted to Whatsapp. I think people are already engrossed in Whatsapp without Wiki and that using this service will only help them gain some information along with it.
- Assumptions apart
Despite all the confusion, this service acts as a mini Genie in our hands, saying, ‘You name it, I have it.’ After all, we live in the information age, and people crave for information and knowledge. It’s a handy tool to those who perceive it as a leap in the information era, while it’s a total annoyance to those who think this is yet another way to grab our attention from the day to day world.
Hereafter, if you get stumbled upon anything while reading or writing or wandering or even solving any murder cases like Sherlock, take out your mobile, open Whatsapp, and type ‘Wiki _____.’
Last Updated on by ritukhare