[Foundation-l] No, even a couple of Google ads on each page would be a fatally bad idea

[Liam Wyatt]

Whilst I don't support or advocate for Wikimedia projects including
advertising, I would like to ask a hypothetical question. Would people's
opinions towards ads would be different if google's ads were to be
incorporated ONLY on the Search page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search in the whitespace on the right.

This is by far the most popular individual page
http://wikistics.falsikon.de/2009/wikipedia/en/ and ads there would be able
to be served in a way that is both relevant to the end-user (based on the
term being searched for) and yet without having to "sell out" our article
pages. On the other hand it would mean we could no longer say "we have zero
ads" and it would create a lot of angry Wikimedians (possibly me included)
making the "slippery slope" argument.

Like I said, I'm not actually supporting this position, but would like to
know if people thought that this would theoretically be a way to gain
revenue without losing reputation/independence.

-Liam

wittylama.com/blog
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