Google gifts Wiki millions

Never look a gift horse in the mouth

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 Wikipedia in various languages, Wikiquote, Wikibooks and other projects.

The not-for-profit foundation employs 33 people, in 2009 it received over $6m in donations.

However, while the gift will secure Wikipedia's financing for the time being, the site still faces the problem of a decline in the number of footsoldiers willing to edit the site for free.

A formal announcement is expected later today. ®