FAQ
How did GapMap start?
+
My name is Mike. One day I was reading an article on English Wikipedia and wanted to share it with a friend who doesn't read English. I figured I'd just translate it myself. Then I thought — how many times does this happen? How many important articles exist in one language but not another, and nobody even knows they're missing? That question became GapMap: a tool that systematically finds and ranks these knowledge gaps across every Wikipedia.
What does the score mean?
+
The score ranks how "important" a missing article is for a given target language. It combines four signals: neighbor coverage (do culturally/geographically nearby languages already have it?), total sitelinks (how many Wikipedias have it globally?), pageviews from the target country (are people already looking for it?), and source article quality. A score of 9+ means it's a critical gap.
Where does the data come from?
+
All data comes from Wikidata, the structured database behind Wikipedia. We process the official Wikidata dumps to build a complete index of which articles exist in which languages. The data is refreshed every 3 days (ish). No AI, no guessing — just cross-referencing public databases.
What are "neighbor languages"?
+
Every language has culturally and geographically close neighbors. For Italian, that's French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Catalan. For Armenian, it's Russian, Georgian, Turkish, and Persian. If all your neighbor languages have an article and yours doesn't, that's a strong signal it's relevant for your readers — not just globally important, but specifically useful in your context.
Can I contribute?
+
Yes! GapMap is designed to help Wikipedia editors prioritize their work. Find an article that's missing in your language, click the link to read it in the source language, then create it on your Wikipedia. You can also help improve GapMap itself — the project is open source.
Why do some results look wrong?
+
Sometimes an article exists in the target Wikipedia under a different name or structure, but isn't linked on Wikidata. Other times, a topic is covered within a broader article rather than having its own page. We're continuously improving filters to reduce false positives. If you spot something wrong, let us know.
Is this affiliated with Wikipedia?
+
No. GapMap is an independent project. It uses publicly available data from Wikidata and Wikipedia under their open licenses, but it's not endorsed by or affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.