Update 12/25/06: Jimmy Wales says this isn’t a Wikiasari screen shot. So what is it?
The Times reported earlier today that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is planning to launch a new search engine next year, to be called Wikiasari.
He’s clearly aiming for Google. He says:
“Google is very good at many types of search, but in many instances it produces nothing but spam and useless crap. Try searching for the term ‘Tampa hotels’, for example, and you will not get any useful results…Essentially, if you consider one of the basic tasks of a search engine, it is to make a decision: ‘this page is good, this page sucks.’ Computers are notoriously bad at making such judgments, so algorithmic search has to go about it in a roundabout way…But we have a really great method for doing that ourselves. We just look at the page. It usually only takes a second to figure out if the page is good, so the key here is building a community of trust that can do that.”
The new company will be the third business division of Wikia, the for profit company that Wales founded in 2005 and is now led by CEO Gil Penchina. The other two business units are the main Wikia wiki site itself, and the recently launched OpenServing product.
Wikia has raised over $4 million in capital, including a recent round by Amazon.
Despite the fact that the original article reported that Amazon is involved in the project, Wikia is making it clear on the site that they are not invovled in any way (other than as a shareholder of Wikia).
Wikiasari
A source tells us that the working name for the project was “WikiSearch” until recently. It’s clear that Wikiasari will be focused on quality first, depth second. Search results will include tag based navigation, the top three results will be wikipedia content, and the remaining results are determined by sites wikipedia considers to be “reputable” because they are external reference links from wikipedia pages.
Since all search results will be tied to wikipedia, either directly by linking to wikipedia content or because the sites are linked to from Wikipedia, real people will eventually be determining all search results and rankings within Wikiasari. The search engine will be opensource, and the index will be available under a GFDL. Wikia will operate the master version of the index, but others are free to take it under the terms of the GFDL.
The engine itself will be built on the Nutch and Lucene open source projects.
Wikiasari will be a for profit venture, although the “majority” of proceeds will be donated to Wikipedia.
We obtained the screenshot from a trusted source outside of Wikipedia - we can’t guarantee it’s not a fake but our belief is that this is a genuine working screenshot of the application. Click on it to see full size version.
seems cool
but whats wrong with wikipedia’s regular search feature?
Michael,
seems unfair you cant invest in these companies . .. this one is a winner
I’m excited for this. This is great for people who aren’t as experienced with the internet. I cringe every time I watch an inexperienced user instantly clicks on paid Google advertisements and not find anything relative to what they were searching for.
Unfair that you can’t invest in these companies?
Call them up if you’ve got 7 figures!
Without computer automation, how is this any different from a directory? This is not a scalable solution, and a waste of human effort.
What a terrible name. Google - easy to remember, easy to type. Wikiwhat? I’ve forgotten already.
Well that’s ironic. The first three results of any google search are wikipedia pages.
Agreed the name is difficult to remember but this might actually prove to be a winner since if it just searches wikipedia, chances of spam are less but then again whats wrong with the regular search. Maybe they wanna monetize their search as well.
The operative phrase is clearly the motto “Searching Wikipedia and its external links” and there will now be even more of a rush to get a link in Wikipedia. For instance, fastluxurycars.com has done quite well in the screenshot despite being a bit on the thin side, because they got a external link under the Wikipedia Toyota Camry Hybrid article. Comparing a Google Search on “toyota camry” at least hints at how weak the example results really are, but paradoxically how much Google loves Wikipedia. For now at least.
The name needs to be changed to “wikify”. Wikiasari will never catch, Wikisearch was closer but drab.
Will put a dent in all other search engines imo.
Putting the human factor to search engine results will only make the SERPs worse. Another thing for black hat SEO’s and spammers to play around with.
The real answer to search and most likely the next google will be people powered search.
Imagine a search engine where you entered in a search term and someone who is online responded with the results for you.
They could promote their own sites or sites where they are affiliated.
To stop people not being helpful for users, the ’search assistants’ get voted of graded as most helpful.
The more helpful you are the better your rating, the more chance to drive traffic to sites incluing yours.
It’s true that people are the best source of knowledge, machines are good at quantity, not quality.
Goodbye Google
JB
Great idea. What about:
1) Everyone rushing the Wikipedia and causing what happened DMOZ to happen to them?
2) If Google drops Wikipedia?
3) When implies their own patent for people-powered search?
It will be interesting.
Warmly,
JP
The SERPs results on the screenshot are NOT bringing up any Toyota.com pages.
Toyota’s official site is the #1 listing on Google Yahoo MSN and Ask for that search.
Wikipedia is also on the first page for all four majors.
★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★ ☆
It will be interesting to see how they deal with the Link Popularity controversy, and the Banning of spam sites.
“and the remaining results are determined by sites wikipedia considers to be “reputable” because they are external reference links from wikipedia pages.”
It will be interesting to see if this will dilute the value of Wikipedia itself as individuals will have an “incentive” to throw more energy into *gaming* Wikipedia itself (with SPAM links) in order to optimize their respective Wikiasari rankings?
if you how to start a clothing line my blog…shows up…so I think google is handling its business!
I’m glad that someone is truly taking on Google. I wonder if Google will adapt if Wikiasari is a success.
Aiming at Google and using its search ads and results - it sounds SO RIDICULOUS. He is BSing his investors
What about Semantic Web?
The names “Google” and “Yahoo” might have been criticized initially, but they’re easy to say and they roll off the tongue. Unfortunately “Wikiasari” just seems like a completely awkward and poor name for a search brand. But at least you can call the users Wikiasarians.
For what it’s worth, I agree with Oliver. Don’t see anything novel here and I’m always amused when a company’s model revolves around phrases like “community of trust.” It’s amazing that some people actually buy into this stuff. If this thing does get traction, it WILL be abused very quickly.
Nice idea, but couldn’t they come up with a more original page design. At first glance, it looks just like Google.
And they definitely need to work on a better name. Wikisearch isn’t that bad.
@ Comment #14: Actually, they are.
fastluxurycars.com/Hybrid-Cars/2007-Toyota-Camry-Hybrid.htm is linked from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Camry_Hybrid for example.
This seems more like a replacement for the current Wikipedia search than a real competitor to Google, et. al.
Scratch that, I misread your comment.
And in fact, you make a good point. Toyota’s official Camry page should be the first result in a search for Camry, but Wikipedia doesn’t apparently link to the Toyota site (at least not the US site–the main Toyota page on Wikipedia links to the Japanese site). That’s a fatal flaw in the design of this engine.
Mmm I just don’t get it…
Since when the wikipedia become a websites directory?
I thought we already had del.icio.us for that… :/
Asari is a Japanese word for “rummaging around”, but the word has some slovenly connotations and is used in context with, for example, homeless rummaging around or less than ethical people “searching” for prey… wonder if this will hinder a launch in Japan, a country that prizes their hierarchical vocabulary?…
i want one
So, if this works out, it may be a threat to google. Unless, of course, Google buys Wikia… Googlepedia anyone?
So Wales’ example is spot on and I’ve seen the same syndrome when searching for many, many things. I’m wondering how they’re going to get the community going. It’s different from Wikipedia- when I edit a page on Wikipedia I am supposed to feel like I am adding to the world’s body of knowledge. When I list a few hotels I’ve stayed in I feel like just another consumer talking to random consumers and thinking about it now I am totally unmotivated to do that.
For the moment, by the way, I’d recommend using del.icio.us for searching for anything that’s likely to be spammed. It does a pretty good job even though it’s so simplistic.
It looks ironically like Google.
Interesting. Though this will intensify spamming of Wikipedia as webmaster’s seek to become a “trusted resource”.
Wales does correctly identify the problems with spam on Google. I also find a lot of problems searching for something and getting pages of review and price comparison sites, which actually don’t have any review or prices on them. In an interview Google said they knew that happened and it was completely fine - a legitimate candidate for being in the index.
Jason is spot on - I’ve recently started searching del.icio.us for things and following the ones which have been bookmarked the most with fairly good results.
Maybe what we need is something with Digg type tools to promote or bury a site in the SERPs? You’d soon “digg down” a spam site, and give a thumbs up to a good one.
I wonder about the screenshot; it appears to have come from this site:
http://www.searchme.com/beta/
Despite the Wikia badge at the bottom, there’s not an unambiguous statement of affiliation between ’searchme.com’ and Wikia.
Also, the ‘Wikiasari’ name dates back at least 2 years; see it mentioned in this November 2004 page revision at Wikia, back when Wikia at first appeared to primarily be a wiki-style DMOZ rather than hosting:
http://search.wikia.com/index......;oldid=658
This seems like the original logo: http://flickr.com/photos/56001082@N00/331682519/
I doubt it could really work well, as there are too many keywords for search. Digg’s spam tool works, but how could a tool works for millions of pages?
Tech Tutorials: http://www.hotcoding.com
Huh?
How about they fix the search on Wikipedia first. You need Google to find anything in Wikipedia. Same with Amazon. How hard is is to implement a “Did You Mean?” feature! Amazon should pull those eggheads at A9 over to the main site and get the search working.
A Digg’s spam toll works as long as people don’t have any problem with it. Controversial comments and so on is always dugg down because they don’t agree with what is states even though it can be true.
And here has been me thinking for months that Wikipedia desperately needs Google as it’s search engine. Current Wikipedia search is useless, can’t do that one vital thing Google has of recognising that the inputted search term may not be 100% correct i.e. different spellings for the same entity or a basic spelling mistake.
This makes total sense. Most of my searches nowadays end up at Wikipedia. Why don’t we just bypass Google. Also wikipedia’s references on a particular topic are peer-reviewed and on-topic so not only do I get an explanation of what I’m looking for but I also get the best references and not have top bother “screening” Google search results.
This ofcourse is based on the fact that you are looking for a particular concept/person/topic.
Cheers!
Wikia does not own Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not involved in setting up this search engine; Wikia is an independent venture. Wikia is free to use Wikipedia content, just like any other company, as long as they follow the license terms.
The screenshot has nothing to do with anything related to the Wikia Search project, which in turn has nothing to do with Wikipedia.
Why are we even allowed to write comments on posts.. useless
Therer is a certain amount or a great amount of intertia with a market leader such as google.
It is tue that the Google product itself was spread successfully by “word of mouth” as being a better product as a search engine than the market leader at the time which was Yahoo.
Yahoo still commands a good market share out of intertia and familiarity by formet users who know the system are familiar with it and are lax to change. Change is never an easy thing.
Google has such a similar advantage with its users.
As well Google has not been standing still and knows the lesson that a superior search engine service whose company has little marketing clout and presence can displace it.
Still Google is such a dominant market force it is hard to imagine it being superceeded .
http://www.vintagecomputermanuals.com
Hey…I hope these guys have their “marbles” together and are not getting carried away. If Google cant find it then maybe…just maybe the results are not there.
This to me is branching out into an area where there is dominant leader (not even Yahoo can keep up) without any revolutionary technology that will somehow show that they will be able to do better than any of the Engines out there.
Cant understand the thinking…..
http://www.jollyjo.org
It would be interesting to know how will they combat the spam once the search feature it out. Wikipedia is still relatively clean from spam these days, but the search feature may draw more spammer in for the profit.
This is a Google killer, ads by Google!
I think it is pronounced, “Wikia, sorry.” As in, I know you wanted either Google or Wikipedia, but your got Wikia, sorry.
If they have any intelligence, they’ll ditch the wikiawhatever name and choose a simpler one. Dangit. Even wikisearch is better
Are you planning to update the post, Mike? Jimbo says the screenshot has nothing to do with Wikiasari.
Wikiasari = DOA as a SE. However, it could be an excellent replacement for their current onsite search system.
Wikipedia taking on google? What a joke???? Is anyone else seeing this disgusting spam photo here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ???
Rumor has it that the Wikiasari engine comes from a start-up called searchme.com, formerly Kavam, funded by Sequoia Capital, the same guys who backed Google and Yahoo - there is big time money behind it.