Can Wikipedia Founder's Search Engine Take on Google?

The founder of Wikipedia is betting that the idea of "ownership" of a chunk of cyberspace will lead his new Wikia search engine to the top of the pack - or at give it a sense of being part of the highly competitive market dominated by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in portals for finding content on the internet.

The site opened today (January 7, 2008) to the general public, and on the front page is a message from cofounder Jimmy Wales "Search is part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. And we are making it open source." Wales and cofounder Angela Beesley started the company in 2004 in Florida, and have since relocated it to San Mateo, California, with offices opened in New York, New York and Poznari, Poland.

The model for the search engine will be different from anything seen before, using a combination of a metacrawler, a search algorithm - and user input. And to cap it off, the entire code for how it operates will be open source, giving anyone with a bent to programming an easy opportunity to tweak the code for their own purposes.

But don't expect immediate results. Wales told Business Week that the site could take up to two years to start showing you a relevant result for your search phrase, since it will primarily rely on its users to decide between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

When you start moving around the site, you start feeling a sense of déjà vu, with elements common from other sites on the 'net. The site itself runs on the same engine as Wikipedia, but also incorporates user profiles made popular on social networking sites, and a set of wikizines like those found on news aggregator Zimbia.

So, what is there to Wikia that will set it apart?

With a market share over 50%, Google is the 800 pound gorilla in the game, but their algorithms are closely guarded secrets. But the question being asked with the Wikia site - Are the search results truly relevant to the person conducting the search - and do their peers agree? Are the results unbiased by money, or are the algorithms playing with the results to favor advertisers?

That is what may set Wikia apart. According to InfoWorld and Wales, the biggest difference will be transparency for the users. They will be able to see the underlying code, and analyze how the results are being derived, unlike search giant Google, who jealously guards its algorithms, and makes arcane and mysterious changes, altering search results on a regular basis.

But can a search engine that doesn't deliver immediate relevant results survive the immediate gratification needs of the typical internet user? Wales and his investor group led by Amazon, Inc. with $14 million invested think so.

"Wikipedia started with nothing and steadily built an audience over six years to become the No. 8 Web site on the Internet," Wales told Business Week. "An audience will stay if they have a sense of ownership, which is what we're providing with the search project."