Google agrees to pay for Wikipedia content

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has agreed to pay Wikipedia for content displayed by its search engine, mirroring deals the US tech giant has struck with news outlets in Europe. The Wikimedia Foundation, the charity that oversees the online encyclopedia, said Google was the first paying customer for its commercial venture Wikimedia Enterprise, which it launched last year. The Internet Archive, a non-profit that runs a site called the Wayback Machine that saves snapshots of websites and is used to fix Wikipedia links, will be offered the commercial services for free.
“We’re thrilled to be working with them both as our longtime partners,” said Wikimedia’s Lane Becker in a statement on Tuesday. Wikipedia, one of the world’s most visited websites, is free to use, updated by volunteers and relies on donations to keep afloat. The new commercial arm will not change that arrangement for individual users, the foundation said.