2009/6/7 AGK wikiagk@googlemail.com:
Unfortunate but unsurprising. Not that long ago Google was telling traditional media that they should construct their articles in a more wikipedia like manner (ie continuously update a single article per event rather than creating a string of new articles).
Unsurprising indeed. I get the impression, from projects such as Knol, that Google is something of an admirer of the Wikipedia model.
AGK
Knol is somewhat different.
Perhaps more directly the recent actions of Google and Microsoft bing suggest that part of being a modern search engine is effectively presenting wikipedia content to people.
You also have the issue that both google maps and Microsoft's multimap have the ability to show wikipedia articles on their maps.