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"Yesterday brought the alpha release of Wikia Search, a new engine built on free software and free culture values. For Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales, the release is a milestone in the realization of a long-held dream. However, as he tells Linux.com, Wikia Search is still a couple of years from maturity, with many of the details still to work out. «Philosophically, I'm a big supporter of free software,» says Wales..."
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.
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
« While I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into the search space, our project, Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped »
"Daniel F. Gass, who signs his emails “15 year old conquering the web” already conquered a part of it since last night, creating a Wikia search plugin for Firefox! ..." --
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.
