Thursday, January 18, 2007

Google Killer?

Check out this write up on Wikia. Its an interesting concept and I think it makes a lot of sense. When you search for something very specific (on Google, Yahoo etc.) it is very painful to have to dig through the search results. There is so much content coming online every second and the search engines are using their proprietary algorithms to index and sort the content. Search would be so much more effective if "somehow" the collective knowledge of the Internet users can also be tapped to aid the search process (in addition to all the search algorithms). I think such a solution has applications even within an enterprise and not necessarily from the perspective of a generic Internet user. The open source approach to developing this solution is simply amazing.

It remains to be seen how it all plays out. Certainly a long way from becoming a Google Killer. Even if it doesn't turn into one, its highly possible that an off-shoot of it might emerge to challenge the king of search?

Btw, I didn't see any mention of how Wikia (which is for-profit as opposed to Wikipedia) plans to make money!