Wikilengua gets 4.5 mn page hits in first year

Madrid, March 12 (EFE) Wikilengua.org, the Internet site on practical use of the Spanish language, is celebrating its first online birthday, having achieved 4.5 million page visits and more than 1.6 million visitors since it started operations in January 2008.

The figures reflect the success of the interactive Web site, promoted by the Fundacion del Espanol Urgente, or Fundeu, to share information and knowledge about the rules and usage of Spanish, to help resolve the most frequent questions about the language and contribute toward helping the Spanish-speaking community achieve greater cultural potential.

Over the past 14 months, each user visiting Wikilengua (www.wikilengua.org) viewed an average of 2.72 pages and remained on the site for about two minutes. Foreign students of Spanish, professors, translators and proofreaders were among the largest groups of visitors.

The Spanish language is arousing interest all over the world, as shown by the fact that the hits on Wikilengua come from 180 different countries. The most active users of the Web site have been Spaniards and Mexicans, followed by Colombians, Venezuelans, Peruvians and Argentineans.

Chile, the United States, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic were the next-heaviest group of user-countries paying visits to the site, which was launched thanks to Agencia Efe, Spain's international news agency, and BBVA, the sponsors of Fundeu, and to the cooperation of Red.es, Accenture Espana and the Foundation of Madrid's Universidad Autonoma.

'We're very satisfied with this first year ... Wikilengua has been selected as one of the six most representative wikis in Spanish, according to the magazine Personal Computer & Internet,' said Javier Bezos, the moving force and coordinator behind the Web site.