Thursday, February 10, 2005

Google to help Wikimedia

Google has offered to help Wikimedia -- the non-profit that maintains the free, community-maintained, and very cool Wikipedia encyclopedia -- with hosting and bandwidth.

Apparently, the offer has no strings attached, no requirement for advertising.

This is a generous move by Google. But it is also true that Google has a lot to gain from supporting Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

By using Answers.com for definitions, Google already indirectly includes some Wikipedia content. Google may be planning to include more encyclopedia content, perhaps to counter the Encarta integration into MSN Search, perhaps just to improve the usefulness and relevance of search results.

Like Google's support of Firefox, Google's generosity is not without self-interest. Nevertheless, it's encouraging and gratifying to see Google helping out these tech non-profits.

[via Slashdot]

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