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April 07, 2005 08:01 AM US Eastern Timezone
Wikimedia Foundation Announces Corporate Support of Wikipedia from
Yahoo! Search; Helps Allow the Organization to Run Wikipedia Independently
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7,
2005--Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that develops and
maintains free open content for the public, and Yahoo! Search, a leading
global search engine, today announced that Yahoo! Search will dedicate
hardware and resources to support Wikipedia, a community based
encyclopedia written and edited by people from around the world. The
contribution is the most significant dedication made to date to the
Wikimedia Foundation by a corporate sponsor and is essential to
furthering their global growth.
In addition, Wikipedia content will become available to hundreds of
millions of users worldwide through Yahoo! Search via shortcuts that are
automatically displayed above the relevant search results
(
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/). Yahoo! will begin making
Wikipedia content available via shortcuts in the U.S., select European,
Asian, and Latin American properties over the next several weeks.
"Yahoo! Search's support and vast user base will provide critical
material aid and global reach for Wikipedia," said Jimmy Wales, founder
of Wikimedia Foundation. "Yahoo! has been Wikipedia's longest-standing
corporate supporter and with this dedication of resources we will be
able to offer Wikipedia content to a growing worldwide audience, while
maintaining full flexibility in our ability to expand relationships and
freely distribute our works."
Since its launch in 2001, the popularity and support for Wikipedia has
continued to grow. Today Wikipedia is one of the 100 most visited Web
sites worldwide, according to Alexa Internet Traffic Rankings, 2005.
"Wikipedia is one of the most recognized community-generated resources
of its kind and it demonstrates the ability to create and manage a high
quality content experience," said David Mandelbrot, vice president of
search content at Yahoo!. "Supporting the expansion of this free service
aligns with our objective to help people search for and use online
content, while also encouraging the growth of communities where people
can share and expand upon the growing collection of information on the Web."
About Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an international non-profit
organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and
distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full
content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.
Wikimedia relies on public donations to meet its goal of providing free
knowledge to every person in the world.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is the No. 1 Internet brand globally and the most trafficked
Internet destination worldwide. Yahoo! provides online products and
services essential to consumers' lives, and offers a full range of tools
and marketing solutions for businesses to connect with Internet users
around the world. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Contacts
Yahoo! Inc.
Aaron Ferstman, 408-349-4902
aaronf(a)yahoo-inc.com
or
Wikimedia Foundation
Jimmy Wales, 727-231-0101