Wikia: new search engine from Wikipedia creators
An internet search engine that draws on human recommendations is due to make its first public appearance on Monday, although even its founder warns that it will take some time to tell if the experiment can yield useful results. Created by Jimmy Wales, the man behind online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the search service will let users rate the relevance of results on a five-star system, then apply that information to shape future search results shown to others. It will also draw on ideas from online social networking to try to establish reputations for its users and decide whose ratings should carry the most weight. The success of Wikipedia, now one of the 10 most visited sites on the internet, has guaranteed huge interest in Mr Wales’s latest experiment, known as Wikia. In an interview, he said that his aim was “to build a completely freely licensed, open-source search engine” that would be far more transparent than Google and other existing services, which keep their algorithms for ranking search results a secret.
Sceptics have argued that Mr Wales’s more open approach risks exposing his service to the “spammers” who try to trick search engines into promoting their sites. Mr Wales himself predicted that it would take “a minimum of two years” for his service to yield results that were competitive with existing search giants. The new Wikia search engine will start with results drawn from its own machine-powered ranking, then try to refine these with ratings from actual users. While the service is open to anyone, only those who sign up, and disclose their identities, are able to submit ratings. Unlike the encyclopedia, which is run by a not-for-profit foundation, the Wikia search engine is being built as a commercial venture, and Mr Wales said he hoped eventually to make money from selling advertising on the site. Does he have any chance against the mighty G?
Source: MSN, FTÂ
Comments(19)
No chance against google. It’s just toooooo big now!
wooo democracy?
It has been launched.
http://alpha.search.wikia.com/
It may become really popular, but I doubt that it will push google down… I’ll still check it out, it sounds interesting.
Another site with begging for money to pay for servers?
@1 and 4
even though google is like microsoft to PC’s, this new idea could be a step in the right competitive direction.
I know the popularity with open source software nowadays, but you cant make everything OS and maintain practicality of the system. If everything goes open source, in this case only to gain the affection of the public (cause OS curtainly enjoys waiving its benifits in your face, but seemingly withholding the entire truth from you), there would be no standard. Thats why I hate Linux so much. Its just too much, and a standard in the field is always required to maintain advancement, if only to use as a reference to rate other projects. Yes, I am sure if Microsoft and Google released their source code, they would undoubtedly fall into bankruptcy. Such a choice to release the code remains an impossible path. In this capitalistic society, they have the right to the success of their own risk. It is this beautifully chaotic withstanding that gives capitalism the power to be the best governmental system in existence.
In short, dont bash Google just because they refuse to release the source code for its almost monopolist search engine. The common person shouldnt embrace an open source project over a closed source one simply for that exact reason. Dont be fooled by such a thinly coated advertisement style…
Oh yes! Please beat the google domination empire for this once. They came up Google, GEarth, GMail, bought Youtube and a bunch more, made their own online office center and have the leading adgenerating system; the only thing what is missing is their own browser and operating system which will use sublimal messages to brainwash the users and take over the world! Id rather see wikipedia doing that. But that might be because I think the name is just cool, lol. I just loved wickipedia as encyclopedia… and now google wants the same! They’re spoiled over at Google, trying to get their hands on everything that looks big. Creepy though, I still use google as startpage. “:|
http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html is your friend.
Wikia Search:
Results 1-10 of approximately 105 for hardcore rat porn (discuss these results)
Google:
Results 1 – 10 of about 287,000 for hardcore rat porn. (0.19 seconds)
I think the winner is clear gentlemen.
@ 10
they said it would take to years to yield competitive results do check back in 2010 and than jerk off to the rat pr0n you found on wikia
I agree with #12 on this one. I don’t see why Google doesn’t just take up the Wikipedia project and put their search suggestions into it.
Why all the haterism towards google? The reason why google is so big is because people like it, its simple, fast and does the job, remember how bad lycos, yahoo, excite etc were, google was better so it won
Or you can also try
http://www.yacy.net
Oooh now we can have a search engine where power mad 15 year olds can block your input even though they’ll claim “anyone can edit it” just like their POS “encyclopedia”.
@7
Excellent post! Best satire I’ve read in a long while. “… It is this beautifully chaotic withstanding that gives capitalism the power to be the best governmental system in existence.” Ahahaahaaaahhahahaahaha! Brilliant!
Now they need an own email thing! I will stop using google since I think there spying on everyone! They match the searches you do to your gmail account and ip adres they know stuff I think. hoes with me?
go go google i now that power or great power is feed by more power and megalomaniac needs, but is the way we live now…