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

[Fred Bauder]

> 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
> Peace, love & metadata

Why would we give money to Google or allow them to select advertisements
which would be placed on our site? They are nice guys, and all, but so
are we.

Fred