Wikipedia to add video content

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia will feature video content which the launch a new HTML5-based video player this week, that will greatly facilitate video addition to the site's millions of text-based pages.

Contributors would now be able to upload and edit clips and add captions and subtitles, however, it remains to be seen how the online encyclopedia's community of editors view this latest feature.

The video upload project, implemented in cooperation with open-source video start-up Kaltura and the Google search engine, was launched in 2008, but it was delayed due to numerous technical problems.

The new HTML5 player is the product of a combined effort between Wikipedia, Google and Kaltura.

Wikipedia, which has 25 million unique daily visitors to its English section alone, currently hosts only about 15,000 videos, added using the older Ogg Theora player that has been in use since 2007 or as part of testing the new player, based on HTML5.