Wikia Search goes live.. but don't expect a Google killer

Jimmy Wales, the famous founder of Wikipedia, just unveiled an alpha version of his Wikia Search engine project. But despite the hype surrounding its appearance, online commentary has been mostly negative.

Across the blogosphere, pundits pounced. But technologists at leading search companies defended Wales and said his efforts could benefit the entire industry.

Arrington of Techcrunch wrote on his blog that the project is "a complete letdown" saying:

Many of us have waited a year as the Jimmy Wales hype machine promised a human powered search engine that could take on Google. Tonight that search engine launched at alpha.search.wikia.com, and it may be one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had the displeasure of reviewing.

Wales admitted that the current search results are "pretty bad," saying it will take a minimum of two years before Wikia Search produces results as good as the major search engines. Matt Cutts, who leads Google's Web spam team, on the other hand published a blog entry Monday welcoming Wales to the industry.

congrats to the Wikia crew on your public launch, and welcome to the search industry! I’m glad that you’re jumping into the search space.

Ironically(?), while Wales' team is jumping into the search space, Google is somewhat jumping into the wiki space with their knol project. Cool isn't it?

The basics so far whey you use the search engine, is that you will be presented with a "mini article" at the top of the results list. Most often a text definition of what is determined the best answer to that particular query. Below the "mini article" will be the list of results, picked from the Search Wikia index. And on the right side will display photos of people "matching" with the query (you have to be a member to add your profile). Funny note, Matt Cutts has been kind enough to add his photo when you type "viagra" on the search field (",)

Eniweys, regarding the current state of the project I think we shouldn't judge that quickly, give them more time to improve and develop the search engine.. it's still in it's alpha stage, right? So I say let's wait for maybe 6-12 months, and if no drastic changes or improvements were still made.. then I think it will be something to be concerned with. Just my 2 centavos.

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technorati tags: Wikia Search, alpha stage, search engine