It is going to take more than just an open search platform to take on Google. Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced today that he is shutting down Wikia Search, the company’s experiment in creating better search results through crowdsourcing. Wikia Search attempted to port the Wikipedia model over to search by allowing anybody to modify results by including new links or moving natural results up the page. The initial launch last year was awful, but the experience improved over time. Still, it never really attracted anything more than a trickle of searchers. We are placing it in the deadpool.
Then Wikia Search got Googled when the search juggernaut launched its own Search Wiki feature, which lets you do pretty much the same thing on Google itself (move results up the page, block results, add comments—except it only affects your search results, not everyone’s). And so it goes. You cannot compete in search if your idea can be easily copied by Google.
But if Wikia Search had never existed, Google might never have felt pressure to add wiki features to its interface. In that regard, Wikia Search did have an impact beyond its own site.
Wales says that Wikia will focus its resources on its main Wikia service for building wikis, as well as Wikianswers, a Q&A service which launched earlier this year and also faces stiff competition, but not from Google.
WOW … that is shocking … there is so much that he can do with Wikia Search!
This is a sad day!
I guess they all fall, one by one, like dominoes against Google’s might.
Powerset, Cuil, Wikia …
Not many Google killers left.
How long can Twitter search or Yauba last before they get Googled as well?
Yahoo’s searchmonkey feature that enhances wikipedia/flickr/fb results is better alternative. Wait for yhoo q1 results, though relevancy is is far worse with yahoo.
That was a joke, right.
Good to see that he knows when to fold.
I guess they all fall, one by one, like dominoes against Google’s might.
Powerset, Cuil, Wikia …
Not many Google killers left.
How long can Twitter search or Yauba last before they get Googled as well?
Of course they’re deadpooled. No *startup* gets the cover of Fast Company with the caption “Google’s Worst Nightmare”, without pretty much sealing your own fate!
http://www.fast...an-smiling.html
Is this the Madden Curse equivalent for internet startups?
I just heard of Wikia.. Why did he not use Wikipedia to promote it like Google uses its resources (Search and YouTube) for Chrome.
Imagine if every Wikipedia entry had ‘why not try wiki search?’
They are separate entities … wikipedia is run by a nonprofit foundation, whereas wikia is a private business. Using a nonprofit for private gain can land you in jail in many countries!
I guess this is also not good news for mahalo, another so called Google killer whose business model makes even less sense than wikia’s.
Crowdsourcing is one of the powerful methods to take on Google. However, it should be done differently, I guess. If you expect people to contribute for nothing, then it’s not going to work. But, there are places where people contribute tons of information for free and that arena is called Social Networks. The intent of people there is to express themselves, nothing more. So, in my opinion, Twitter has high potential to take on Google and I believe web sites like http://www.boilingpage.com do that brilliantly. It has greater potential too to take on Google, but it makes more sense to consolidate these companies under Twitter.
We’ve been doing similar things at Duck Duck Go: http://www.duckduckgo.com/. In particular, instead of, like you say, asking users to “contribute for nothing,” we’re drawing on existing sources where crowd sourcing has already worked.
Maybe hakia.com will be an alternative search engine which can compete with Google. You can’t say that Powerset has already lost the competition because it hasn’t really been started: You can’t see whether it’s good or not if it only searches Wikipedia articles.
It seems like a common practice for Google to copy the ideas up-and-coming search companies produce and get to market. Is that how a company in that stage keeps “innovation” alive? At Charles Knight’s AltSearchEngines conference in SF yesterday, over 30 alternative search companies presented their ideas, and I very much hope that they will find a way to build their businesses and get rewarded for their creativity and hard work that keeps the industry moving forward.
I guess it’s nothing more than an april fool prank…
I have to say, I am using Twitter search tools more and more…
http://tweetzi....m/q.php?q=wikia
It was doomed to fail, I guess;
It was unknown to the mainstream and was to ‘complex’ to be usefull for casual search.
marissa mayer “very likely” promissed an off button to google searchwiki end of Q1
http://www.tech...nk-you-marissa/
well, end of Q1 is tomorrow…..
Is that going to be the new tech term. Close down shop everybody, we just got Googled!
I guess everybody knew this would come someday… I mean, Google just had to put simple wiki features on its interface to get wikia search out of the way… I don’t think you can start a search engine only optimized by real people. Google is excellent at everything that makes a search relevant: location based results, collaborative filtering, indexing and “spidering” the web… What’s funny now is that as much as i like Calacanis, I think Mahalo could be the next on the list since it doesn’t do anything more than google nor wikia search… just my opinion folks
Orkut (Google) Using Microsoft’s Technology:
http://eleclion...fts-technology/
– http://lionblog.co.cc/
This companies fate was sealed when they chose that stupid looking cotton ball for their logo.
I use http://www.sagoon.com and it works fine
With Wikia Search gone, we are left without any transparent/open web search engines. But did you really need one? My bet is we did not, otherwise Wikia wouldn’t have only 10K monthly users.
See http://www.jrol...ch_death_do_you
“we are left without any transparent/open web search engines”
Yauba http://www.yauba.com works fine for me. Actually is quite good although a bit slow.
I suppose you could say that Wikia was “Googled Up”. har har
Note2Self-stop tryin, just stop!
It must be April fool stuff.. $14 million cannot go that soon..
come on.. it’s april fool’s day right!!
Strange. I said from Day One that Wikia Search would not work, because its leader isn’t reliable and transparent.
In fact, my letter to the editor of Fast Company appeared in the second issue after the “Google Killer” claptrap cover story.
I got called a “troll”, for being right. Once again.
Maybe people will start listening to me now?
http://www.mywi..._of_Jimmy_Wales
http://www.mywi...te_to_Wikipedia
I’m not a fan of many of Google’s business practices, but I’ve never used any other search engine since they’ve launched. Why? Because it f’ing works.
What are any of these search engines promising except to maybe, someday, if lots of other stuff happens, having “better, but in a different way” results?
This one in particular was a disaster from the start. Why do the rather weird people who make up Wikipedia’s inner core (seriously, look at a convention group shot sometime) volunteer hundreds of hours for no money? Because they’re playing the world’s largest MMPORG, even bigger than Warcraft, and they’re getting social rewards constantly.
All of the thinly veiled spammers here pimping their projects — good luck! Because no one will copy that model and make money off it. Jimbo has to find alternative methods to make money off of it himself. The model doesn’t work except to maintain the Internet’s largest cornucopia of slang terms for “breasts”.
Jack Parsons, you are wielding a hammer, and you have hit the nail resoundingly on the head.
That was a joke, right.
What are any of these search engines promising except to maybe, someday, if lots of other stuff happens, having “better, but in a different way” results?
That really pulls on my suspenders when a company starts to monopolize the market and take ideas from weaker companies. I can’t believe that Google installed a feature with the name Wiki actually in it. And the internet police were okay with this blatant piracy?