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Jimmy Wales at FSFS.in Jimmy Wales had talked about few of his new initiatives at FSFS.in conference in Kerala, India.
Wikia Search Project Search Wikia is one of them. Unlike other search engines the methods of search indexing (algorithms) are open for all to see and understand. Would it change how the search engines work in future is yet to be seen
Look out, Google! Jimmy Wales is coming for you. The founder of Wikipedia is aggressively building out his Wikia effort, a commercial collection of Web sites anyone can edit. One of its key parts? Search.
Mention Jimmy Wales and you automatically think Wikipedia; however, that is not his only love child. The Wikia search engine is his latest offspring; or least it was when it was launched in January 2008. Wikia has been devised as a free software and open source alternative to Google and othersNow.
Wikia Search launched live Monday in its first publicly accessible form.
The search engine, backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, is an open source search tool that allows collaboration.
Wikipedia and Wikia operate independently and are unrelated except for Wales' involvement in each.
Wales announced plans for the project last year and said he wanted to provide an open alternative to Google (NSDQ: GOOG).
Wikia Search uses a social networking model, allowing users to create profiles, select friends, share photos, and manage privacy preferences in addition to providing traditional search capabilities. Users can click on an option to start or participate in discussions about search rankings and write mini-articles about search terms.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales - "alpha" version of his open source community-driven search engine, 'Wikia Search.' The basic premise is that instead of using a typical algorithm to prioritize search results, users can rate them on relevance.
I had a play with the site today, and it appears this will initially take the form of a simple five star rating system placed alongside each search result -- though the system is not yet active.
Although Wales insists the engine could eventually become a significant player in the search space, its reliance on user feedback means that it will take some time to become effective. As a result, don't expect it to challenge Google in terms of depth and relevance of results any time soon.
"The open-source search engine backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales could go live as an early test version as soon as next week. Unlike Google, Search Wikia will not share search data with advertisers, nor invade privacy by storing users' search terms..."
"...Wikipedia plans to release a new search engine in December called Wikia Search. The hope being that it will be a successful rival to Google and Yahoo! The plan is for anyone with sufficient programming knowledge to contribute to its development, ultimately enhancing the search experience for the consumer..."
Portland, Oregon, July 27, 2007 - Wikia, Inc. (www.wikia.com) the leading provider of community resources for building and organizing free content on every topic, today unveiled major next steps in its work to build a new search platform founded on open-source search protocols and human collaboration at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON).