Wikipedia Gets Money From a Google Co-Founder

Are you tired of seeing the "Personal appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales" that have populated the top of the screen while looking you're trying to figure out who played that one guy in that movie, who Vlad the Impaler was or just looking at something other than spreadsheets during the workday?

Well, one tech executive took the message to heart.

Wikipedia received a $500,000 donation from Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, right after the free online encyclopedia started their eighth annual fundraising drive.

"This grant is an important endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation and its work, and I hope it will send a signal as we kick off our annual fundraising campaign this week," said Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, according to the Web site eweek.com. "This is how Wikipedia works: people use it, they like it, and so they help pay for it, to keep it freely available for themselves and for everyone around the world. I am very grateful to Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki for supporting what we do."

The fundraising drive is part of Wikipedia's attempt to stay ad free, something the company has taken seriously since their founding.