Google gives $2M to support Wikipedia

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc., the Internet’s most profitable company, is giving $2 million to support Wikipedia, a volunteer- driven reference tool that has emerged as one of the Web’s most-read sites.

The donation announced Wednesday matches the largest grant made so far to Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that oversees the seven-year-old Wikipedia.

Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar also donated $2 million to Wikimedia six months ago through one of his investment arms.

The latest largesse has catapulted Wikimedia beyond its $10.6 million revenue target for its fiscal year ending in June.

That goal had looked ambitious, given that it represented an increase of more than 20 percent from $8.7 million a year earlier.

But the worst recession since World War II evidently didn’t dampen support for the Internet’s most popular encyclopedia, which has more than 14 million entries written and edited by some 100,000 unpaid contributors in about 270 languages.

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