Search Wikia - Update

Search Wikia - Watch

On a non-news day, I thought it appropriate to check in on some of our recent entrants into the world of web 2.0 as promised. Wikiasari, which is no longer the name by the way, is working on a real language search engine to fill in the gaps left by Google.

The current site is named Search Wikia, and it is obvious on visiting the site that Jimmy Wales has the creative wheels turning. The look of the current search page is all Wikia, and visitors will feel right at home in the familiar setting. The central theme of Wales' vision is scribed into the center text: "Search is part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. And, it is currently broken.

According to news from the site, it appears that Wales, like other next generation web 2.0 developers, is staying busy on the promotional tour telling the world about the Search Wikia. Search Wikia is not a search engine yet, but rather a platform where the engine can be developed and the progress viewed. Interestingly a visit to Powerset will reveal the same site that was there at the press release a month ago, while Wales' efforts can be viewed as an ongoing effort right on the Search Wikia page!

The theme so far seems to be a call for participation, which I find attractive and in line with what we were told about the development. Participation is the big deal for Wikia generated sites, and the new search engine platform page is no exception. The community portal has links for joining the mailing list, a developer's page, and for corresponding directly with Jimmy. In essence, everything we all need in order to participate is there on the infant page or platform!

Developer Page

By simply creating an account, a potential developer for the engine can be listed right along side software developers from Hungary to Australia. A sort of resume description of many site developers, and their experience posted there. Individual links to each developer are intact, but you have to have an account to access them. I must say the list seems pretty impressive as do their stated experience and qualifications.

Forum

Developers and members post a variety of brainstorming topics to this page. The most current comment to the forums is a suggestion for what is termed semi-automatic semantic tagging. A quote from this post is necessary for you to get a feel for what is going on at Search Wikia posted by user MovGPO from Germany;

"To get the semantic meaning of the website the crawler also uses the WikiRelate! algorithm (or something similar) to link the keyword to a wikipedia article trying to do a best-fit mapping of the website with a URL of the type http://<xx>.wikipedia.org/wiki/<keyword>, where the xx-Part is extracted using the xml:lang Attribute. If the lang-Attribute is not set then we try a mapping using all Wikipedia Articles from all languages. Alternatively we might implement a new algorithm that uses OmegaWiki's database for guessing the right language."

Diagram 1.1 Conceptual representation presented by forum member MovGPO

There is a significant post nearly every day by developers and contributors, and one can only marvel at the open discourse and contribution going on. Compared to the seemingly secret goings on at Powerset, where we can only imagine engineers locked in small cubicles hovering over their laptops, much of Wikias development is right in our face.

What the Engine is Not

According to the news and notes section, Search Wkia has nothing to do with Amazon, other than Amazon's investment in Wikia, inc. The project also has noting to do with a screenshot at TechCrunch, and also has nothing to do with Wikipedia. Finally, Wikiasari is not or will not be the name for the new search engine!

Evidently there has been some miscommunication in the news about Search Wikia, and it appears as if the engine's developers are sensitive about it. This is interesting, as most new web creations are hungry for just any kind of news and speculation. Could this mean that Search Wikia is not about hype? I thought initially that Wikia was at least part of the equation for a serious web 2.0 search engine. This visit to their development platform convinces me even more that collective creativity has a home at Wikia. We shall continue to watch for developments on this fascinating endeavor.

Comment

I have made a big deal out of Wikia's methodology for collective creation of this search engine, when in reality this is the only way such an engine could ever come to fruition. The big deal for me is really in the potential capability of so many intelligent people. Companies like Powerset and Google also have great potential either because of their ability to attract brilliant minds or their financial ability to buy technology. The only problem with their development mode is the variables left out of the final equation.

No single mind, entity, or compartmentalized collection of entities can conjure up the end product possible from thousands of ideas and thoughts. Viewed from a corporate standpoint, Wikia has the potential to be the world's largest company. A simplistic example of this concept would be Search Wikia as General Electric and Google being Bob and Fred's Toaster Oven Repair. I know that is a stretch, but think about this idea ideally.

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