Yellowikis was a
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWiki ...
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
collecting basic information about businesses. This information included basic contact details such as company name, address, websites, and telephone numbers, as well as internal Yellowiki
wikilink
In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to Data (computing), data that the user (computing), user can follow or be guided by point and click, clicking or touchscreen, tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document ...
s to competitors. Yellowikis was launched in January 2005. As of March 2011, the main page of Yellowikis had been translated into more than twenty five different languages.
Some users also entered a number of codes, including the two letter country code, as well as an
International Standard Industrial Classification The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) is a United Nations industry classification system. Wide use has been made of ISIC in classifying data according to kind of economic activity in the fields of emp ...
,
North American Industry Classification or US
Standard Industrial Classification
The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was a system for classifying industries by a four-digit code as a method of standardizing industry classification for statistical purposes across agencies. Established in the United States in 1937, it ...
. Some users are also adding
geocode
A geocode is a code that represents a geographic entity (location or object). It is a unique identifier of the entity, to distinguish it from others in a finite set of geographic entities. In general the ''geocode'' is a human-readable and ...
s, and
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
IDs.
Legal Issues
Commercial business listing company
Yell Limited requested that the founders of Yellowikis, Paul Youlten and Rosa Blaus, amend their site, claiming that Yellowikis was "passing itself off" as being associated with Yell.com and that people would confuse the two organisations. This was in July 2006.
This might be considered to be anti-competitive behaviour in the eyes of certain commentators, however, such claims are unlikely to carry any water from any legal perspective.
Yell's claim is given considerable weight by the slogan on Yellowiki's front page that they are "Yellow Pages for the 21st Century" although in their public protestations, Yellowikis claimed that they were ''not'' trying to create an association between themselves and Yellow Pages.
Yellow Pages
The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for ...
is a registered
trade mark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others. ...
in many countries, including the United Kingdom.
In some territories, however, the mark has lost its distinctiveness as a source of origin of goods and services. From 9 to 14 October 2006, the domain address redirected to the new ''Owikis'' website, which stated "the trademark dispute between Yell Limited and Paul Youlten, concerning the Yellowikis website, has been satisfactorily resolved."
The Yellowikis website reappeared on 15 October 2006 with the explanation that
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
users would have to use Owikis, without the "Yell" in the domain name and without the colour yellow in the logo. International users could continue to use Yellowikis. As of , the Owikis site is not yet available. As of May 2014, the main page is dead.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
Emily Chang
*
*
*
* {{cite news, url=http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article1096343.ece, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060708021838/http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article1096343.ece, url-status=dead, archive-date=July 8, 2006, title=New Media: Who are the real winners now we've all gone Wiki-crazy?, date=2006-06-26, work=
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
, location=London , first=Kathy , last=Marks
*
Yell threatens to shut down Yellowikis from
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation that works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying, "On Wikinews, each story is to be ...
, 2006-07-05
External links
Yellowikison
Wikia
Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities before 2007 and later Wikia before 2019) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e. video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). Its domain is operated by Fandom, ...
Directories
MediaWiki websites
Internet properties established in 2005
Yellow pages