Jimmy Wales in his blog has provided an Update on Wikia and that update is that basically he's waving goodbye to it. Despite a 172% growth in destination visits over 2 years it's clearly not pulling its weight. While 'in a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search' it would appear this is neither the time nor the place. Resources will be directed towards Wikianswers instead. Microsoft is also pulling out of the reference business and closing Encarta.
It's sad to see both of these resources go, though Encarta rather more than Wikia search. When I first reviewed it back in Jan 08 I said "My overall impression is one of being totally underwhelmed. There are a great many blanks, unfinished sections, links that don't go anywhere and lots of not much else. It's like looking inside a large house - I can see the rooms, stairs, basement and so on, and the lights work, the water is on, but not much else."
I went back a few times to visit it and my impression never really changed for the better. I don't think that it was ever able to entirely create its own identity, and in a space crammed with Google's SearchWiki, Knol, Wikipedia itself, Mahalo etc it was only a matter of time before the curtains were drawn on it.
It's sad to see both of these resources go, though Encarta rather more than Wikia search. When I first reviewed it back in Jan 08 I said "My overall impression is one of being totally underwhelmed. There are a great many blanks, unfinished sections, links that don't go anywhere and lots of not much else. It's like looking inside a large house - I can see the rooms, stairs, basement and so on, and the lights work, the water is on, but not much else."
I went back a few times to visit it and my impression never really changed for the better. I don't think that it was ever able to entirely create its own identity, and in a space crammed with Google's SearchWiki, Knol, Wikipedia itself, Mahalo etc it was only a matter of time before the curtains were drawn on it.
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