Wikipedia Founder Takes On Google
Jimmy Wales, the man behind Wikipedia, has just launched a search engine that allows users to rate results, theoretically improving over time the quality of information returned.
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.
The search engine, Wikia, went live today and will be initially using its own ranking algorithm, with results refined by user ratings. The search engine can be used by anyone but, at least for the time being, only users willing to disclose their identities will be permitted to rank results. Wales expects it will take two years or more before Wikia is competitive with giants like Google and Yahoo!.
Two years? If the news about this gets out to all of those folks who’ve been waiting for a viable alternative to Google, I’d be surprised if it didn’t take half that time.
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Lovin’ it!
jae’s last blog post..Lite blogging
Maybe I am missing something, but you can only search other Wikis, and not the internet at large. Am I mistaken and am missing something?
Steve’s last blog post..Life is funny and surprising
You’re missing something. Or, rather, I could’ve made it a bit more obvious instead of expecting folks to look around out that page for the search option.
It’s here.
Nah…I saw that…I think the search timed out the first time. All I got were blank results. Worked this time. Could be interesting.
Though the pale lettering on a white background has GOT to change
Steve’s last blog post..Life is funny and surprising
Once you sign up I believe you can change the skin to something else.