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Wikipedia search engine to challenge Google
Wikipedia search engine to challenge GoogleGoogle, the undisputed leader of internet search, could be under threat from a new search engine created by the founder of Wikipedia, the online open-edit encyclopedia.
The new "Wikiasari" site, which will be funded by internet ads, is to use the existing Wiki design that allows individual users to control the content themselves.
Wikipedia's creator, Jimmy Wales, notes that results pages from search engines such as Google are filled with bad results mingled in with the relevant ones.
Using Wikiasari, ordinary computer users will be able to change this by re-ranking the search results, which will initially be provided in the conventional way (using page links and so on). The re-ordered results will be stored by Wikiasari's servers and, when the same search is made in the future, the engine will bring back the results in the order most commonly saved by users.
Mr Wales asserts that this human input will positively impact on search results. "Human intelligence is still a very important part of the process," he told Business Week.
Users will also be able to improve the website's own code, which will be thrown open to the outside world. Search engines such as Google have traditionally guarded their code closely but Wales believes an open-source model will eventually be more successful.
In contrast to the non-profit Wikipedia, Wikiasari will be supported by sponsored ads on the right-hand side of the search page, following Google's own formula. The system will mean that advertisers will themselves have a vested interest in improving Wikiasari's functionality.
However, Google and its main rivals are true goliaths and it will be some time before the new search engine, due to launch in early 2007, can dent their market share.
In 2006, Google recorded year-on-year growth of 31 per cent.
Online Advertising news posted on 27 December 2006
