Rather than relying on free data dumps and publicly available APIs (application programming interfaces) to scrape information from Wikipedia pages, Wikimedia Enterprise Edition lets customers use APIs that are more suitable for recycling and handling larger-scale information. The service also enables customers to retrieve updates for the content they use, helping to prevent outdated or inaccurate information from appearing on networks other than Wikipedia.
While you may not have noticed, Google uses Wikimedia’s services in a number of ways. Most notably in its “knowledge panels,” which appear on the side of search results pages when you query Google’s vast database for people, places, or things. Wikipedia is one of the sources that Google often uses to populate these panels with information. Google has also referenced Wikipedia in the information panels it added to some YouTube videos to combat misinformation and conspiracy theories (though it didn’t really give Wikimedia advance notice of its plans to do so).
It’s not entirely clear how Google’s new partnership will change things on the end user side. Tim Palmer, general manager of Google’s search partnerships, commented that Google looks forward to “deepening” its partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation through its enterprise services. Although the user may not notice the change at all.
Maybe we’ll see Wikipedia referenced more in the Knowledge Panel, or maybe Google will come up with a new way to integrate Wikipedia’s information into its services. Google has donated to the Wikimedia Foundation in the past, but this marks the first time it has signed on as an actual customer.
In addition to Google, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that the Internet Archive is also a corporate client. It’s a nonprofit that runs the Wayback Machine, a database that keeps snapshots of websites over an entire period of time, giving you glimpses of information that’s been deleted or changed, and exploring old-fashioned page layouts.
While the Wikimedia Foundation will apparently receive some funding from its partnerships with Google and the Internet Archive, the organization expects its enterprise services to account for “a small fraction” of its revenue.
