Wikia Search Needs Improvement, But Still Holds Some Search Engine Value

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Monday, 7 of January , 2008 at 8:31 am

Jimmy Wales - yes, that Jimmy Wales - has rolled out his latest project: Wikia Search. In other words, search has gone wiki.

I like the idea, but it remains to be seen how this will improve search. Wales is the creator of Wikipedia, which has become popular for its user-generated content. The biggest, and most valuable, criticism of Wikipedia is that the information is not entirely reliable. The concept is based on the idea that errors in knowledge will be corrected by a democratic process wherein any user, or content creator, can make changes or challenge objective information. So far, it’s worked to some degree, albeit not perfectly.

Can Wales take the wiki concept and apply it to search? There is some negative feedback already and the project is only days old.

Paris Lemon is a lot nicer in his review than either Michael Arrington or Allen Stern, but Matt Cutts welcomes Wikia Search to the search field. I’m sure he does. So far, Wikia Search doesn’t really provide any competition, though it claims to be in direct competition with Google. Wales says he is looking to gain a 5% foothold in the search market. I’m not sure where that is going to come from. If he achieves that then he will be running neck and neck with Ask.com. Is there room for a fifth search engine in the race?

I like this statement on search philosophy, taken directly from the Wikia Search About Us page:

I believe that search is a fundamental part of the infrastructure of the Internet, and that it can and should therefore be done in an open, objective, accountable way. This site, which we have been working on for a long time now, represents the first draft of the future of search.

The implication there is that Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live, and Ask are not objective. That may be so, but markets are never objective. Is it too much to ask of a search engine to seek objectivity in its results? How objective are the New York Times or Washington Post? How about Fox News?

Wikia Search - An Honest Evaluation
Information sources are not necessarily objective. They approach the collection, analyzing, cataloging, and interpretation of information from a point of view. By definition, they are not objective. If Wikia Search achieves what its competition does not then it will likely carve out a niche for itself. But I doubt that it will ever be No. 1. Google and Yahoo! are the leading search engines because they provide other services that benefit their users.

That said, I conducted a search for “Nick Stamoulis” at Wikia Search and the top 5 results were:

• A press release at PRWeb announcing my network of blogs
• The Marketing Consulting Services page of www.nickstamoulis.com
• A PRWeb press release announcing the launch of PayPerClickJournal.com
• A display ad I have running on another website
• SearchEngineOptimizationJournal.com’s index page

The same search at Google returns:

• www.nickstamoulis.com
• My Meetup.com profile page
• www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com
• My SEMPO profile
• A short sponsor’s review at www.entreprneurs-journey.com

I’d have to say, based on that search query, that I am pleasantly surprised that Wikia Search returned results that were just as relevant as Google’s, though I’m not 100% satisfied with either results page. I’d have preferred, for instance, to have more of my blogs listed than my Meetup.com profile or an ad that runs on another website. Nevertheless, it seems that Wikia Search may have some value, but it obviously does not enjoy the same reputation or carry the same quality across the board as older search portals online today. But I do think we should give them time to improve and re-evaluate down the road.

Category: SEO, Search Engines

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