Yahoo! gives "charitable" help to Wikipedia

Yahoo! plans to add functionality to Yahoo! Search that will give people shortcuts to content from Wikipedia, the community-based encyclopaedia.

The links to Wikipedia content will be displayed above search results, said Yahoo! and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that is parent to Wikipedia. The feature will be added sometime during the next several weeks in the US and in some European, Asian and Latin American markets, Yahoo! said.

In addition, Yahoo! will provide hardware and resources to Wikipedia.

Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, said in a statement: "Yahoo! Search's support and vast user base will provide critical material aid and global reach for Wikipedia. Yahoo! has been Wikipedia's longest-standing corporate supporter, and with this dedication of resources we will be able to offer Wikipedia content to a growing worldwide audience, while maintaining full flexibility in our ability to expand relationships and freely distribute our works."

Wales said in a Yahoo! blog that Yahoo!'s donation was "purely charitable", adding that it came with no advertising requirement and "no ownership or control of our work by Yahoo! of any kind".

The online encyclopaedia is based on wiki technology, which is designed to let multiple people work on a project using a uniform interface. In other words, anyone can add to or edit Wikipedia.

Dinesh C Sharma writes for CNET News.com.