Google agrees to pay for beefed-up Wikipedia service

Google has previously given money to Wikipedia through donations and grants but the new deal puts their relationship on a more formal commercial footing. — AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Google has agreed to pay for ramped-up Wikipedia services, part of a growing trend for the US tech giant to strike commercial deals with other web companies.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the charity that oversees the online encyclopaedia, said Google was the first paying customer for its commercial venture Wikimedia Enterprise, which it launched last year.