Nothing can beat free publicity. Riding on the coattails of Wikipedia's popularity, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder hasn't had any problems in getting media attention for his collaborative social search engine - Search Wikia. Headlines regarding the proposed project abound:
- People power takes on Google
- Google vs Jimmy Wales & Open Source Search
- Jimmy Wales and his Search Engine
- Wales' Wikia Grabs Grub to Power Google Onslaught
- Wikipedia Search Engine to Let Users Influence Web Results Rankings
- Wikipedia's founder builds an open-source search engine
If headlines were a measure of success, Google should be shaking in its search boots. The reality is that Wales' project hasn't a snowflake's hope in hell of challenging Google's supremacy. Based on initial reports, Search Wikia is likely to be little more than a re-packaged version of DMOZ. The volunteer editor concept hasn't worked for DMOZ and it won't work for Wales. The Web is growing too rapidly and evolving too quickly for human input to play a significant factor in search relevancy. Unless Wales plans to recruit the population of mainland China, Search Wikia will play a minor role in the evolution of search. Google's only worry will be where their AdSense ads are placed on Search Wikia's pages.
Then again, maybe Jimmy has a secret strategy we at SiteProNews are not aware of. Care to comment, Mr. Wales?
