• ClickZ, Tuesday, January 3, 2006 10:38 AM

Despite news reports circulating last week (which we didn't hear 'cause we were on holiday) that Wikipedia, the consumer-generated Web encyclopedia, looks set to start selling ads, company founder Jimmy Wales tells ClickZ the opposite. Wales said he was misquoted in a New York Times article published last week with the headline, "Wikipedia Chief Considers Taking Ads." In fact, Wales says the company doesn't need advertising to survive and that selling ads would be a backlash. However, the founder's tone regarding the issue comes across as ambivalent; he says ad-supported content might further the company's "charitable mission" of providing community-generated information, adding later, "We have never said there would absolutely never be ads on Wikipedia." We wonder how the free site actually makes any money.

Read the whole story at ClickZ »