Do Google donations to Wikimedia show any bias in search results?
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Over the weekend we learned Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $500,000 to Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia.com.
Last year I believe Google donated $2 million to Wikimedia. I now ask, is this suspicious in anyway, seeing that Wikipedia ranks so well in Google for so many terms?
There are several blog posts about it online here and there throughout the years, but what does everyone think?
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Most of the places where I am defeated by wikipedia are places where they deserve the top rankings. A few places they don't deserve it for the PAGE but they do deserve it because of the authority of their WEBSITE.
In my opinion, donations to wikipedia are paying a HUGE bandwidth bill and the administrative expenses required to run one of the busiest sites on the web.
If wikipedia is beating you then you must earn the position above them.
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Google values good content and contribution from Wikipedia to users. It hardly to get crappy content on Wikipedia. So ranking matter is not relevant to donation.
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Question is more like does Google's donations to Wikimedia imply they have some kind of relationship? Perhaps preferential treatment? Google seems to be very interested in keeping Wikipedia.com live. Wondering if that same concern transfers over to the algorithm in any way.
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I highly doubt that there's any benefit in SERPs by donating money. However, if the site were to list the websites (in a link or otherwise) that have donated money it might give you a tiny, tiny, tiny boost. Doubtful.
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