Wikipedia founder to launch search engine

By Vivek | December 22nd, 2006 at 10:57 pm ET         

Update: Please check my recent most post on Wikiasari for updated information

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is planning to launch a search engine, Wikiasari, as early as Q1 of next year. Jimmy Wales is partnering with Amazon to build a search engine rival to Google. The search engine will come through the for-profit company Wikia set-up by the Wikipedia founder. Earlier this month Amazon had invested an undisclosed amount on funds in Wikia. Personally I expect this investment and partnership to continue further and build upon the strong web-services platform being offered by Amazon in the form of S3 and EC2 serving as the backend for Wikiasari.

Jimmy Wales is hoping to use his well-earned Wikipedia fame to drive users to the new service. The search engine will exploit the same user-based technology as Wikipedia that involves human input to judge the quality of content. In the news report in Timesonline, Jimmy Wales was critical of Google’s automated search+ad machine and wants counter that with the human-trust he will build into the new system. Monetizing method for Wikiasari still remains the same - Advertising.

Links:
TimesOnline.uk news report