These days you can’t visit Wikipedia’s website without seeing Jimmy Wales’ big mug bearing down on you with some request for a ‘donation’. Wikipedia ‘needs your help’ he likes to say. Well, help has come from Sergey Brin, one of Google’s very wealthy co-founders. Brin decided to extend his generosity by donating $500,000 to help the struggling Wikipedia keep the show on the road.
The donation was part of a joint effort between Brin and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder of 23andme. The couple apparently felt moved by the generous and free service carried out by Wikipedia. But how long can Wikipedia continue to function as an ad-free service? Most users (include yours truly) are more than happy to nip over to Wikipedia every now and then, grab some information and click away—and I have for one have never felt like donating to Wikipedia. For me the there’s no cause and there are plenty more websites that I would rather give my hard earned money to.Perhaps its time Jimmy Wales and crew got an Adsense account. Get some contextual ads running on the billions of page views generated each month and I am sure there won’t be need for an annual fundraising drive. It’s a thought.
Do you donate to Wikipedia? If you do, tell us why in the comments below
Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2011/11/23/google-co-founder-donates-500000-to-wikipedia/