Google pays 2M$ to hide pagerank failure
2M$ is pretty cheap for the billion dollar company to hide the fact that if Wikipedia did not exist then everyone would notice that pagerank or whatever else they have tried does not work.
Google is giving the Wikimedia Foundation a $2m donation, meaning the online fact dump can continue to serve up instant research to hard-pressed college students and broadcast researchers. There's no official announcement but Jimmy Wales and Mitch Kapor, also on the board, spilt the beans on Twitter. The Foundation funds …
"the site still faces the problem of a decline in the number of footsoldiers willing to edit the site for free."
Given how snobbish and egotistical some of the Wikinazis can be, I'm not surprised. I saw a note on a page recently basically stating the content of a page about a computer game was given in the form of a fictional account. No sh*t, Sherlock.
I wouldn't edit that pusbucket, even if they paid me.
I don't stick around forums that are managed by snotty pricks so full of themselves that there's no room for anything like common sense.
I use Wikipoopy-ya as a quick "layman's explanation" of things, but it's completely worthless for anything serious. Just trawl through some of the page edit histories of things that you know about. You'll be slugging Scottish beer and crying your eyes out within a half hour.
The evil angle..? That's easy. A site as large as wikipedia - would be a lovely purchase for Google, surely.. Think of all the data they can mine from edits, impressions, etc..
Oh! They can't buy Wikipedia..? Well, how about they do the next best thing then, and graciously give them a bundle of cash. Then 10 years later, Google will be the *only* ones giving them substantial cash, which will put them in quite a nice position to start dictating terms..
do no evil =/= increase shareholder revenue
This is genuinely good news.
When Google start paying people to edit content then I'd be really worried.
Nothing wrong with Wikipedia articles coming top in Google's research - there is no ulterior motive and Google's rakning formula is secret - if you don't like it use Bing or Yahoo. Of course, if Wikipedia start pushing adverts on their site then this would be very sinister (of course, then they would not need the money).
My little Wiki edit some years ago remains in place, serving as a constant reminder to myself that if *that* piece of nonsense can remain un-checked after several years (and, rather pleasingly, has now propogated itself around the web), then I should not rely on anything I read elsewhere on Wiki.
It remains, on the whole, a good resource though. And bless Google's little evel-free socks for their donation.
I removed a reference to a "Notable former resident" from my village wikipedia page, I used (Getting your baps out hardly counts as "notable") as a laugh. Someone tried to add it back the next day, but was removed for "No reference" or some other bollocks. Our notable former resident is still missing from the page now.
<hangs head>
Our notable former resident is/was Abi Titmuss.....
</hangs head>
Nicer tits than Paris.
I was getting sick and tired of reading the "we need money" everytime I went on wikipedia.
Hey Jimbo, alot of us webmasters provide websites for free, some spending hundreds of dollars a month (of their own money) to keep a site up for the public. If people find your cause worth donating to, they will donate to it.
I've read so many user pages of old wiki admins that have quit/resigned because of the politics and other nonsense that goes on at wikipedia. It's ashame it doesn't run out of money and disappear.
At least google and it's people will secure non-biased wiki pages for awhile with this fruit basket.
I could seriously do without wikipedia.
I have to say I he posted pages, edited pages and contributed content only to have the Wikinazie police slap me down, revert and redirect...
So we have people monitoring the content creation when they don't have the knowledge of the content being created, for instance we created an entry for premedia for them to state that it doesn't cite any references (well that was after I reverted back their relink to prepress... If it was prepress then we would have edited prepress... pricks!) so because a new term doesn't have any references - what the hell were we creating in Wikipedia! Emmm that be the reference!
Googles donation can only be a good thing, maybe in time the site will become more dynamic!