Search Wikia Alpha launches, not useful at all... yet

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, Search, web 2.0

Search Wikia Alpha launches, not useful at all... yet

by Brad Linder Jan 7th 2008

For those waiting with baited breath for Jimmy Wales to launch the distance cousin of Wikipedia, the wait is over. For everyone else, umm... Search Wikia Alpha is live today. What was originally billed as a human-powered search engine much the same way Wikipedia is a human-powered encyclopedia is right now just a second-rate computer-powered web search site that lets you create user profiles.

Theoretically Search Wikia will get better with time as more users create profiles. That's because you can add keywords for things you're interested in to your profile. When users search for those terms, your picture will show up on the right side of the screen. You'll be able to edit search results matching those keywords, and presumably other users will be able to click on your profile to find relevant links and articles.

But right now, Search Wikia is pretty much machine powered and far less likely to give you what you're looking for than Google, Yahoo!, Live Search, or any of the other competitors. But as founder Jimmy Wales points out at TechCrunch, it's not really fair to compare Search Wikia to sites that have been around for a decade or more. Not only has Search Wikia just launched (in alpha, no less), but in order for the site to thrive, it needs to build a dedicated user base to edit search reults. And how could anyone expect that to have happened by day one?

Tags: jimmy-wales, search-wikia, wikia, wikipedia

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jonhenshaw said 2:57PM on 1-07-2008

I think it's quite good for an "alpha" search engine and it has just the right balance of social networking features. I also appreciate that it's simple and not overdone.

http://raven-seo-tools.com/blog/75/wikia-search-launches-today

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