Wikidata

Wikidata

Wikidata is a free, collaborative database that stores structured facts about people, places, events, and many other real-world things. Contributors add and edit entries so each item has a stable identifier and a set of simple statements like dates, locations, and relationships. Unlike plain text articles, its facts are stored in a format computers can read and combine, which makes it easy to reuse information across websites and apps. It supports many languages by keeping labels and descriptions in multiple scripts, so the same item can be understood globally. That multilingual, machine-readable structure lets search engines, researchers, and developers draw on the same data without copying text manually. Because it is openly licensed and actively maintained, it is often used to power quick reference features, data visualizations, and linked datasets. People use it to check facts, connect different data sources, and improve how information is discovered online. Like any crowd-sourced resource, it can have gaps or mistakes, so important facts should be checked against primary sources when necessary. Its open nature encourages collaboration between journalists, researchers, and developers who need reliable, machine-readable facts.