Link: Wikipedia Founder To Launch Wikiasari Search Engine Early 2007. The link goes to a Search Engine Land mention of this bit of news that was broken by The Times Online. The name comes from Wiki (quick) and Asari, which is Japanese for 'rummaging search' or otherwise known as 'I know it's in here somewhere but I just can't put my finger on it'. Hardly an awe inspiring concept.
There's a whole bunch of stuff out there already in the blogosphere, and most of it is wrong; Amazon/A9 is not involved with the project at all. It's going to be a 'people powered' search engine that will be open sourced, and Wikiasari is the name of the software, not the search engine. You can find out more about the project from their website.
So is this a new concept? Hardly - the idea of a people based search engine has been around for a reasonably long time. For example, we've got Decipho that I wrote about a week or so ago, the improvements to the Eurekster Swicki a few days before that, Collarity, Jatalla Chainki Zeedex and then you've got all the personalised search builders out there as well.
Is this one going to take off? Well obviously we'll have to wait and see, but there's a lot of money behind the project and if the same enthusiasm can be created around it in the same way that happened with the Wikipedia it's going to worth looking at. But it's going to have to go some to become a Google Killer.
I'm very intrigued by Wikiasari; the concept is great, the time is right for a GoogleKiller, and you couldn't get a heftier backer than Jimmy Wales.
I just worry that what will inevitably be a commercial concern may exert an influence on the not-for-profit Wikipedia.
This is discussed in detail here:
http://zenbullets.com/blog/?p=59
Posted by: Wikipedia vs Wikiasari | February 21, 2007 at 05:39 PM