Although it sometimes seems that Google has a complete monopoly when it comes to online search, with Yahoo trailing a distant second, there are in fact other viable search engines to compete with the “big boys” online. Microsoft’s Live Search and Ask.com are but two examples of “alternative search engines.”
But this week Wikia Search will officially go online as an alternative to the big players. CRN.com is reporting that the new Wikia Search engine will be online by January 7, 2008. Wikia chairman Jimmy Wales admits that the new search engine is not an immediate threat to either Google or Yahoo, while hoping that “the community construction of the search engine will bring increased transparency.”
Like Wikipedia, Wikia Search will be entirely built and maintained by users. Search enthusiasts can filter and rank search results with the help of Wikia Search’s open-source online software. Wikia’s concept is to create the first community-based Search engine which allows users to transparently view how search results are compiled.
Wikia Search has an ambitious goal of indexing 50 to 100 million web sites by the January 7 launch date. Wales is optimistic about Wikia Search’s chance to provide a transparent user-driven search engine to a global Web audience, and he admits that the goal of the new search engine is nothing less than to “change how the industry works.”
In an apparent slap toward Google, Wales insists that allowing search results to come from a “magic” and unknown algorithm — like Google does — does not contribute to the concept of an open Internet, with a democratic and transparent nature.
Google has long been criticized for failing to reveal the methods the company uses to rank web sites online, and the specific algorithm that is used to determine their search results changes several times a year.
Although Web experts admit that Wikia Search is an interesting concept, and may well find a market in the online world, most also agree that Google and Yahoo will continue to dominate the Internet search market into the foreseeable future, regardless of the success or failure of Wikia’s new search engine.
But others feel that Wikia may actually have Google a bit nervous about the future. With the success of other Wikia online channels, such as Wikipedia, the organization definitely has a good track record online. With a little luck, Wikia Search may just find itself taking over a sizable share of the online search market, even if that does leave it a distant third in the running behind “the big two:” Google and Yahoo.
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