Google has opened up its charity wallet once again. This time, the search giant has donated $2,000,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs and maintains Wikipedia.
The donation, in true social media fashion, was announced via tweets from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales and Wikimedia Foundation advisory board member Mitch Kapor. Neither Google nor the Wikimedia Foundation have made an official announcement yet — it’s supposed to come tomorrow.
The donation’s definitely in line with Google’s (
) generosity to foundations that promote a faster and more open web. However, we think it’s interesting that Google is giving money to the Wikimedia Foundation now, only a year and a half after the search giant launched its own Wikipedia killer, Google Knol.
Back then, we said it was doomed to fail, and so far Knol’s stagnation has proven us right. Is this a sign that Google’s abandoned the project and is embracing Wikipedia (
Google Gives $2 Million to Wikipedia’s Foundation
Microsoft Outlook to Add MySpace and Facebook Integration
Microsoft Outlook has just become a lot more social through new partnerships with Facebook and MySpace and an existing one with LinkedIn.
You might remember back in November that Microsoft announced Outlook Social Connector, a new Office 2010 feature that hooks up social feeds into the Outlook inbox. The initial partner for the program was LinkedIn (
), whose business connections, alerts, and messages would integrate directly with Outlook.
Now that integration has gone live. Outlook users can now download LinkedIn for Outlook and transform their desktop inboxes into their hub for all things LinkedIn.
Overshadowing its release though is Microsoft’s announcement of two big partners for the Outlook Social Connector, MySpace () and Facebook (). Sometime in the next few months, users will be able to check up on their MySpace friends, update their Facebook status, and browse through photos.
While it’s unclear just how deep this integration will go, it’s clearly a win for Outlook and Microsoft. While Google’s Gmail service now boasts Google Buzz (), Microsoft can counter that with LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook, all of which are more widely used than Buzz.
Do you think Outlook Social Connector will be enough keep people hooked to Microsoft’s desktop software? Is it enough of a reason to switch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.