Google has offered to assist online encyclopedia Wikipedia, by providing some much needed storage and hosting services to the giant non-profit site. Although terms of the upcoming arrangement have yet to be finalized, Wikimedia commented that any deal will still see Wikipedia remaining ad-free; meaning that the arrangement will not impose Google "AdSense" technology on the popular site. An administrator for the Wikipedia project spoke briefly about the pending agreement:
"Google has at least tentatively agreed to give us access to a certain number of dual Xeon servers at one or more of their data centers and with unlimited bandwidth. I've been told that there are no strings attached, meaning they don't expect us to do anything for then, such as having Google Ads. In short, this is wonderful news... In addition to taking a lot of work, there is barely ever enough money to run what will shortly become one of the top 100 websites on the internet, and the only thing limiting Wikipedia's growth is hardware."
One would think that we will see a closer relationship develop between Google Search and the access of Wikipedia entries. Recently Microsoft finalized its new and improved MSN Search tool, allowing direct access to its Encarta encyclopedia. Another major search engine, Yahoo, offers visitors directed access to the Columbia Encyclopedia. Details of the final arrangement, including changes to either site, should be made available sometime in March.
See an interesting discussion on GWiki here - The simple solution is to require that google make the entire archive available to anyone for a nominal fee (covering their costs and overhead) for as long as Google uses the encyclopedia. If google agrees then their motives are most definitely altruistic. If not, they are almost certainly looking to co-opt the wikipedia archive and interface into google (similar to what they have done with usenet news, being the sole owner of a historical record).
Via Neowin | Wikimedia
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"Google has at least tentatively agreed to give us access to a certain number of dual Xeon servers at one or more of their data centers and with unlimited bandwidth. I've been told that there are no strings attached, meaning they don't expect us to do anything for then, such as having Google Ads. In short, this is wonderful news... In addition to taking a lot of work, there is barely ever enough money to run what will shortly become one of the top 100 websites on the internet, and the only thing limiting Wikipedia's growth is hardware."
One would think that we will see a closer relationship develop between Google Search and the access of Wikipedia entries. Recently Microsoft finalized its new and improved MSN Search tool, allowing direct access to its Encarta encyclopedia. Another major search engine, Yahoo, offers visitors directed access to the Columbia Encyclopedia. Details of the final arrangement, including changes to either site, should be made available sometime in March.
See an interesting discussion on GWiki here - The simple solution is to require that google make the entire archive available to anyone for a nominal fee (covering their costs and overhead) for as long as Google uses the encyclopedia. If google agrees then their motives are most definitely altruistic. If not, they are almost certainly looking to co-opt the wikipedia archive and interface into google (similar to what they have done with usenet news, being the sole owner of a historical record).
Via Neowin | Wikimedia
See related stories from Google News...
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There is a debate within the online community regarding the fate of the amazing Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that has grown into one of the largest free ...
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Wiki Media Foundation, the group behind the Wikipedia online encyclopedia project, said Friday that search giant Google has volunteered to host some of its ...
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