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Google Donating Bandwidth and Servers to Wikipedia

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the yes-have-some dept.

Armstr0ng writes "According to Dirson's blog, Google plans to help Wikipedia by donating bandwidth and servers to handle part of their increasing load. In fact, there's an official page of Google's proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects."

15 of 451 comments (clear)

  1. G-Franchise by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Gmail
    2. Gbrowser
    3. Ghosting

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    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:G-Franchise by Matt_R · · Score: 5, Funny
      They'll acquire PayPal first

      Gaypal? :-)

  2. One idea as to why Google is doing this.... by MBraynard · · Score: 5, Interesting
    so when you do a google search on a particular subject - you get an immediate link at the top to the related wiki entries.

    But others could do this, too? So maybe Wiki can limit the ability of others to do this, and give this ability exclusively to Google?

    What I am trying to ascertain is what value can Wiki give google other than advert space, which is apparently not part of the current deal?

    1. Re:One idea as to why Google is doing this.... by MOMOCROME · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Google needs to solve the problem of people searching a term to get a rough idea of the meaning. They've got it covered for definitions, but more advanced concepts are still wanting.

      As it is, say you are interested about what happened in 1033 AD. If you search for "1033" you get a range of pages that have anything to do with 1033 AD, instead you get info abobut RFC 1033, port 1033, california legislation s.1033, and so on. If you search for "1033 AD" you likewise get a wide range of incidental and nearly useless trivia about 1033 AD, with very little in the way of comprehensive overview.

      Wikipedia has an entire page on the events of every year starting at around 900 AD, iirc. It should be the first hit for searches like that. Google is looking for a means to justify making it so, without complaint from the wikioids and without complaint from the people stressing over page rank for their site. Expect a section with an automatic overview of the wikipedia entry, similar to how they are placing image search results at the top of some searches now, or like they do with news.

      The deal here is that google wants to retain the lead spot for quick reference needs. Wikipedia serves that purpose very well, but I'd say most people don't know to check it out.

  3. Why Not use AdSense? by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Currently, Wikipedia is relying on charitable donations in order to get its funding... but why don't they just add the Google AdSense code into their pages?

    Even their own Advertising on Wikipedia policy page admits ads are going to happen someday. Wouldn't this be the best way for them to go?

    1. Re:Why Not use AdSense? by Captain+Nitpick · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Even their own Advertising on Wikipedia policy page admits ads are going to happen someday. Wouldn't this be the best way for them to go?

      Did you intentionally read that incorrectly, or what?

      Advertising is not going to happen on Wikipedia. The last time it was half-heartedly entertained, the Spanish Wikipedia misinterpreted it as a definitive statement and forked.

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      But then again, I could be wrong.
  4. Re:It's awesome... by LilGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't help but wonder if this could backfire on wikipedia tho... suppose somewhere down the line they're heavily dependent on google's help.. and google disagrees with some content on it (read: investors aren't happy with content), there's a possibility of censorship or removal of content?

    I know people are gonna fly off the handle at me for even suggesting google could ever do anything so wrong, but you never know... especially once the stock market becomes involved.

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  5. Another jab at MSN? by sangreal66 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seems like Google hasn't taken to kindly to Microsoft's recent launch of the new MSN Search. Last week they moved Google Local to the front page in an apparent effort to meet Microsoft's localization feature. This move looks to me like an attempt at meeting Microsoft's Encarta integration.

  6. Re:For a small price by jm92956n · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is now called Gwikipedia.

    KDE users everywhere are, of course, completely outraged!

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  7. A letter to Google by DiscoBobby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dear Google,
    Could you guys be any cooler? Hey, I know I'm a geeky Google fanboy, you make me look smart at my job every day. I'm not pretending otherwise, let's get that straight. It's hard not to like a friend like that. And I know you've had PR issues with employee bloggers, but on balance you guys do more "good things" than just about any other Big Evil Internet Corporation around. Granted, the Gates Foundation gives a lot of money to worthy causes, but their patron takes our money and freedom with the other hand. Long term you probably want to make a buck off Wikipedia, and you're getting your foot in the door now. They ARE one of the best resources around, and it fits your strategy of being the answer to just about any question.

    But strangely, I trust you guys not to screw it up, unlike some others (Micro*cough*) I can think of. I think you're crazy enough to let Wikipedia run under it's own editorial control - if you can call it that ;) - without heavy-handed corporate meddling. I hope you'll just let it purr along with minimal intervention and let it make you money. Better Google than MS, I say. And if it's really just a charity gesture, well, a big hellyeah and mucho goodwill to you all.

  8. Doesn't that just hit the old g-spot? by rs79 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they ever do pr0n I've got a great name for them.

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    Need Mercedes parts ?
  9. Re:For a small price by Carnildo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wikipedia would also be the perfect place to demonstrate their search capability and test new search algorithms: it's got good internal linkage, contributers are well-behaved, it's very high-traffic, and it's got a large document base to work from.

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    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  10. Re:It's awesome... by kryogen1x · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...and google disagrees with some content on it (read: investors aren't happy with content), there's a possibility of censorship or removal of content?

    The content doesn't have to be hosted on Google's servers for Google to edit the content. Wikipedia articles can be edited by anyone.

  11. Re:For a small price by rsborg · · Score: 5, Funny
    It is now called Gwikipedia.
    KDE users everywhere are, of course, completely outraged!

    Of course, something called Kwikipedia makes me think of...

    Apu: Thank you, come again!

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  12. Answers.com is the reason by vandalman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Google is now linking to answers.com for defining terms. Answers.com uses Wikipedia as part of it's search results. The bandwidth for answers.com is going up and therefore Wikipedia's bandwidth is likely to go up. Google is just trying to protect it's investment and get some cool points along the way.

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