Thursday, 27, Dec 2007 01:16
Jimmy Wales, the founder of online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, has announced that his new open-source search engine will be launched on January 7th 2008.
Beta testing of Wikia Search, which utilises a search application, search algorithm and Web crawler, is already underway ahead of its full public launch.
Wikia Search will employ a community model to allow users to filter sites and rank results, which Mr Wales hopes will see it evolve into a more transparent service than rival search engines.
Mr Wales is reportedly hoping Wikia Search will develop into a product capable of challenging market leader Google.
However, Canadian technology writer Garett Rogers recently expressed serious doubts about Wikia Search's ability to compete with the search engine giant.
In an article for ZDNet, Mr Rogers wrote that Google has a large and loyal user base and any company, even one with superior search technology, would find it difficult to tempt them away.
He added that he is not convinced about the usefulness of Wikia Search's community model, explaining: "If I knew a better result for a search query, I wouldn't be searching - and if I do, it's likely I'm a spammer or trying to game the system."