Editing Yellowikis

{{Short description|Former wiki on businesses}}
{{Infobox website
| name             = Yellowikis
| favicon          =
| logo             = Yelwiki.png
| screenshot       =
| url              = [http://yellowikis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page yellowikis.wikia.com]
| commercial       =
| alexa            =
| type             = [[MediaWiki]]
| registration     = Optional
| owner            = [[Wikia]]
| author           =
| launch_date      = January 2005
| current_status   = Inactive
| revenue          =
}}
'''Yellowikis''' was a [[MediaWiki]] [[website]] 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]]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.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

Some users also entered a number of codes, including the two letter country code, as well as an [[International Standard Industrial Classification]], [[North American Industry Classification System|North American Industry Classification]] or US [[Standard Industrial Classification]]. Some users are also adding [[geocode]]s, and [[Skype]] IDs.

== Legal Issues ==
Commercial business listing company [[Yell (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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Legal threat to wiki listing site|work=BBC News|date=12 July 2006|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5169674.stm|access-date=12 July 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Teenager faces action over listings website| first = Bobbie | last = Johnson|date=2 August 2006|work=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk_news/story/0,,1835233,00.html|publisher=Guardian News and Media Ltd | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Yell threatens to sue wiki rival|author=Jane Hoskyn|work=vnunet.com|date=14 July 2006|url=http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2160380/yell-threatens-sue-wiki-rival|publisher=VNU Business Publications Ltd|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930195439/http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2160380/yell-threatens-sue-wiki-rival|archive-date=30 September 2007}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060707/030216.shtml|title=Wiki Demonstrates How Yellow Pages Are Obsolete -- Gets Sued For Its Efforts|newspaper=techdirt.com|date=7 July 2006|access-date=25 September 2020}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|last=The Yellowikis Community|title=Response to Yell|publisher=Yellowikis|year=2006|url=http://www.yellowikis.org/wiki/index.php/Response_to_Yell|access-date=14 July 2006}}</ref> [[Yellow Pages]] is a registered [[trade mark]] 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]] 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 {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}, the Owikis site is not yet available. As of May 2014, the main page is dead.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://yellowikis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page|title=Web Archive|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528135708/http://yellowikis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page|archive-date= 2014-05-28}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite news|url=http://www.researchbuzz.org/2005/06/business_information_in_wiki_f.shtml|title=Business Information in Wiki Format|date=2005-06-22|publisher=ResearchBuzz}}
* {{cite news|url=http://competia.com/competia_w/site/fiche/1954|title=Yellowikis|date=2005-07-26|publisher=Competia}}
* {{cite web|url=http://alina_stefanescu.typepad.com/totalitarianism_today/2005/05/a_wiki_worth_wa.html|title=A wiki worth watching|work=totalitarianism today|access-date=2005-10-07}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.stabani.com/index.php?s=yellowikis|title=Why I think Yellowikis is a good idea |work=site spotlight|access-date=2006-01-16|author=S.Tabani}}
* [[n:Emily Chang|Emily Chang]] {{cite web|url=http://www.emilychang.com/go/ehub/|title=Emily Chang's eHub|work=eHub|access-date=2005-10-09}}
* {{cite web|author=Richard MacManus|url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=58|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051116153337/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=58|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 16, 2005|title=Yellowikis – A Case Study of a Web 2.0 Business, Part 1|date=2005-10-15}}
* {{cite web|author=Richard MacManus|url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=59|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060128003335/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=59|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 28, 2006|title=Yellowikis: a Web 2.0 Case Study, Part 2 – Industry Disruption and The Competition|date=2005-10-16}}
* {{cite web|author=Richard MacManus|url=http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=62|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051217211757/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=62|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 17, 2005|title=Yellowikis: Demonstrating Web 2.0 principles|date=2005-10-17}}
* {{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]] | location=London | first=Kathy | last=Marks}}
* [[n:Yell threatens to shut down Yellowikis|Yell threatens to shut down Yellowikis]] from [[Wikinews]], 2006-07-05

==External links==
* [http://yellowikis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Yellowikis] on [[Wikia]]

[[Category:Directories]]
[[Category:MediaWiki websites]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2005]]
[[Category:Yellow pages]]