Wikia Search Invites Users to Stir the Pot

-- the unfastened beginning hunt engine Wikia initially launched in January -- got a fresh start Tuesday. The refurbished version allows users edit, remark on and influence hunt results.

After performing a hunt question on any major hunt engine, a user typically acquires a unchanging consequences page -- the information it incorporates is determined largely by an algorithm. Wikia Search claims to add a human component to the procedure by allowing the customization of hunt results. Users can cancel or conceal results, rank points and add new results.

Based on their relevancy to the query, Wikia Search users will be able to charge per unit certain hunt consequences via a star-based system, which will gradually change the order of lists on the page.

New and Improved

"For the first time, we are allowing the true conception of the wiki to be utilized," Jimmy Wales, cofounder of Wikia Search, told LinuxInsider.

The new Wikia Search page also offers one-click links to seek consequences on (Nasdaq: GOOG) , (Nasdaq: YHOO) and other major hunt engines, allowing users to compare the unfastened beginning hunt engine to its proprietary competitors.

Since the January launch of the hunt engine, approximately 20,000 members have got got signed up and created profiles, and nearly 66,000 edits have been made to Wikia articles, Cymru said.

Although Wikia Search have not generated a important amount of traffic , Cymru anticipates it to increase following the unveiling of the new site.

"Because the quality of our hunt engine have drastically improved, I anticipate the figure of users to increase," he said. "[Wikia Search is] still not as good as I'd wish it to be, but we're definitely heading in right direction." Search Engines of the Future

The chief end of pursuing an unfastened beginning theoretical account for creating Wikia Search have been to pave the manner for other organisations to develop their ain high-quality hunt engines, noted Wales. "We are hoping to see midsize organisations such as as as The New House Of York Times be able to construct Google-quality hunt engines without disbursement billions of dollars."

Searching is of import to the Internet community, and how a hunt is executed should not have got to be controlled by search engines such as Google, remarked Wales. Google Killer?

Despite suggestions that Wikia Search could be a "Google killer," the hunt giant looks nonplussed. In fact, Google states it welcomes any competition that benefits users.

Calling Wikia Search "competition" may be a stretch at this point, however.

"Since January, there have not been enough traffic to Wikia Search to describe any growing or trends," Flatness Tatham, manager of mass media dealings for Hitwise, told LinuxInsider. "However, since the land site have opened up for editing, perhaps that volition gun trigger some growth."

The Wikia Search undertaking is built using an unfastened beginning protocol, and all content is available under an unfastened license.

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Wikia Search Allows Users To Change Search Results - InformationWeek

Wikia Search, the unfastened beginning Web hunt engine, this hebdomad announced new characteristics that volition give users even greater control over hunt results.

The changes, unveiled Tuesday, allow users edit, remark on, add, and cancel hunt results. Wikia, formerly Wikicities, released its alpha version of an unfastened beginning hunt engine in January. The company said this hebdomad that it have got attracted about 20,000 registered users who have written nearly 25,000 mini-articles and made almost 60,000 edits.

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The company trusts the recent alterations will increase user battle and do hunt more interactive.

Users can redact results, titles, and summaries. The alterations are immediately available to all users. Results can be rated on a five-star scale, with comments, and subscribers can add related searches. Users also can prevue sites, text, images, and golf course from the lists of hunt results. Wikia also will let users to chink once to seek their hunts with other hunt engines.

"Collectively, these new characteristics set us a measure closer to our end of making the hunt procedure a much more than participatory and democratic one," said Jimmy Wales, co-founder and president of Wikia. "So, if person runs a hunt and doesn't happen the consequence they're looking for, we're giving them the powerfulness to travel in and hole it. It goes on to be our belief that, over time, by adding the human component into hunt we'll be able to bring forth more than relevant, insightful results."

Wikia Search also added "activity" feeds and other improvements to its profile pages so people can expose and discourse recent changes.

Like its first cousin Wikipedia, the hunt engine listings all alterations and edits.

To assist explicate how easy the procedure is, Cymru released a picture to show the alterations to .