• Associated Press, Monday, March 24, 2008 11 AM

Wikipedia is one of the 10 most popular Web sites in the U.S., but it makes almost no money. In fact, all the money that the community-edited encyclopedia makes comes from donations-a great irony when you consider the company Wikipedia keeps as one of the most visited Web destinations: Amazon, News Corp., Yahoo, Google, etc.

It comes as little surprise, then, that Wikipedia, more mature now, has started to look longingly at the success of its neighbors. Right now, the Wikimedia Foundation, the encyclopedia's parent, is pondering a number of changes to the site to help bring in revenue; among them is selling advertising.

As Wikipedia founder and chairman Jimmy Wales says, the Web firm's bureaucratic system and structure has strengths and weaknesses. "The strength is, we don't do anything randomly, without lots and lots of lots of discussion," he says. "The downside is we don't get anything done unless we actually come to a conclusion." Wikimedia's financial situation isn't all that bad: the company raked in $2.2 million in cash contributions last year, up from $1.3 million in 2006. Meanwhile, the foundation's budget this year is $4.6 million.

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