Wikia Search
Encyclopedia
Wikia Search was a short-lived free
and open-source Web search engine
launched by Wikia
, a for-profit wiki
-hosting company founded in late 2004 by Jimmy Wales
and Angela Beesley.
Wikia Search followed other experiments by Wikia into search engine technology and officially launched as a "public alpha" on January 7, 2008. The roll-out version of the search interface was widely criticized by reviewers in mainstream media. After failing to attract an audience, the site closed by 2009.
, the Sydney Morning Herald, and online editions of Forbes
and Business Week publishing the statement as an announcement, encouraging the company to re-brand and relaunch its previous search engine proposal under the temporary name of "Search Wikia". In a later interview, Wales attempted to clarify several issues. He said that funding received from Amazon.com
was not specific to the search project and also restated that Wikia and Wikipedia have separate management, even though they shared three key stakeholders. When asked whether the project was "formally announced", he said it was partly planned and partly a response to news coverage.
On January 31, 2007, at a talk given at New York University
, Wales announced that Wikia plans to build a search engine rivaling those of Google
and Yahoo based on the kind of collaborative cooperation which has been so successful in developing Wikipedia
, arguing that "search should be open, transparent, participatory, and democratic." He later suggested this new approach could account for five percent of the search market. On March 10, 2007, Gil Penchina
, chief executive officer of Wikia, stated in an interview that the goal for the project is to get five percent of the search market and that a release date for services was not scheduled. "We're really trying to build a movement to make search free and open and transparent," Penchina said. "We have some servers up and people are hacking away." The free and open-source approach of utilizing programmers and users around the world is different from that used by major search providers such as Google and Yahoo, who keep most of their code secret, and could provide a search engine that lets users edit and fine tune its results.
On December 24, 2007, Wales announced that Wikia Search had entered "private pre-alpha". In August 2008 Wikia Search launched an official version of the Wikia toolbar that can be downloaded and added on to the Firefox browser. In October 2008, WISE — Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions was released. In March 2009, the project ended: "... Wikia Search was not making its numbers. With only 10,000 unique users a month over the past six months, Wales said, it was hard to justify the resources being put into it."
On June 3, 2008, an upgraded version of Wikia Search was released with additional features such as improved screen display and facilities for users to rate, edit and enhance the search results. In particular, it offered users the possibility of adding pertinent URLs to the results displayed and deleting any misleading results with immediate effect. The improvements were widely welcomed by a number of former critics.
By August 2008, Wikia Search held a 0.000079% share of the search market in the U.S., compared with Google
's 70.77%. While Google was conducting experiments with page ranking based on user feedback around this time, Jimmy Wales stated that Google's random tests and its closed algorithm
were different from the open, community-oriented crowdsourcing
attempts of Wikia Search.
The site was said to be going down after March 31, 2009; however, as of April 16, 2009, the site was running, but with "So long and thanks for all the fish! Have a specific question? Try wikianswers!" near the bottom of the page. Finally on May 14, 2009, the search engine service was brought to a halt. Queries to the Wikia Search website were redirected, with a message in part stating "The Wikia Search project has ended."
Mini articles were short articles about the topics given by their title.
They were hosted by a Wikia wiki.
Whenever a search query is issued with mini in front, the results page looked in the wiki for a mini article with a name that matched the search query. If no matching article existed, the search user was given the opportunity to write a new one.
Profile functions include Status, Basic profile, White board, Albums, Friends, Personal and Work.
The results presentation used XML-formatted requests to query the index. The XML format is called "Open Index and can be used to query indices other than the one at Internet Systems Consortium (ISC)
.
The results presentation once included an option to select a different index to be used (out of three).
In early 2009, Yahoo! BOSS
was being used as the back-end.
.
Although the index servers were donated to ISC, the index server's domain name still remains the one of the Wikia Search software labs, The search engine's main page and result pages themselves are served by Wikia (note that the result pages' content is retrieved from the index server at
The social network, like the results presentation, was hosted by Wikia.
Search Wikia, the wiki which hosted the mini articles, is hosted by Wikia
. The wiki's content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)
.
Although formally owned by Wikia, Wikia's management have stated that they want the wiki's user community to govern the wiki, as is custom with Wikia wikis in general.
Free content
Free content, or free information, is any kind of functional work, artwork, or other creative content that meets the definition of a free cultural work...
and open-source Web search engine
Web search engine
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results often referred to as SERPS, or "search engine results pages". The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other...
launched by Wikia
Wikia
Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
, a for-profit wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
-hosting company founded in late 2004 by Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
and Angela Beesley.
Wikia Search followed other experiments by Wikia into search engine technology and officially launched as a "public alpha" on January 7, 2008. The roll-out version of the search interface was widely criticized by reviewers in mainstream media. After failing to attract an audience, the site closed by 2009.
History
On December 23, 2006, Wales made a passing comment regarding the possibility of a wiki-based internet search. The result was extensive media coverage in multiple languages, in outlets like The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, the Sydney Morning Herald, and online editions of Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
and Business Week publishing the statement as an announcement, encouraging the company to re-brand and relaunch its previous search engine proposal under the temporary name of "Search Wikia". In a later interview, Wales attempted to clarify several issues. He said that funding received from Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
was not specific to the search project and also restated that Wikia and Wikipedia have separate management, even though they shared three key stakeholders. When asked whether the project was "formally announced", he said it was partly planned and partly a response to news coverage.
On January 31, 2007, at a talk given at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Wales announced that Wikia plans to build a search engine rivaling those of Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
and Yahoo based on the kind of collaborative cooperation which has been so successful in developing Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, arguing that "search should be open, transparent, participatory, and democratic." He later suggested this new approach could account for five percent of the search market. On March 10, 2007, Gil Penchina
Gil Penchina
Gil Penchina is an American business manager. He was formerly the CEO of Wikia Inc., and the vice president and general manager, international at eBay.He attended the Kellogg School of Management and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.- External links :...
, chief executive officer of Wikia, stated in an interview that the goal for the project is to get five percent of the search market and that a release date for services was not scheduled. "We're really trying to build a movement to make search free and open and transparent," Penchina said. "We have some servers up and people are hacking away." The free and open-source approach of utilizing programmers and users around the world is different from that used by major search providers such as Google and Yahoo, who keep most of their code secret, and could provide a search engine that lets users edit and fine tune its results.
On December 24, 2007, Wales announced that Wikia Search had entered "private pre-alpha". In August 2008 Wikia Search launched an official version of the Wikia toolbar that can be downloaded and added on to the Firefox browser. In October 2008, WISE — Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions was released. In March 2009, the project ended: "... Wikia Search was not making its numbers. With only 10,000 unique users a month over the past six months, Wales said, it was hard to justify the resources being put into it."
On June 3, 2008, an upgraded version of Wikia Search was released with additional features such as improved screen display and facilities for users to rate, edit and enhance the search results. In particular, it offered users the possibility of adding pertinent URLs to the results displayed and deleting any misleading results with immediate effect. The improvements were widely welcomed by a number of former critics.
By August 2008, Wikia Search held a 0.000079% share of the search market in the U.S., compared with Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's 70.77%. While Google was conducting experiments with page ranking based on user feedback around this time, Jimmy Wales stated that Google's random tests and its closed algorithm
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
were different from the open, community-oriented crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
attempts of Wikia Search.
The site was said to be going down after March 31, 2009; however, as of April 16, 2009, the site was running, but with "So long and thanks for all the fish! Have a specific question? Try wikianswers!" near the bottom of the page. Finally on May 14, 2009, the search engine service was brought to a halt. Queries to the Wikia Search website were redirected, with a message in part stating "The Wikia Search project has ended."
Features
The search engine's result pages provided access to three major components:- a web search engineWeb search engineA web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers. The search results are generally presented in a list of results often referred to as SERPS, or "search engine results pages". The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other...
, - a social network serviceSocial network serviceA social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
and - a wikiWikiA wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
, which hosts so-called mini-articles
Mini-articles
A prominent feature of the search engine were the human-written mini articles.Mini articles were short articles about the topics given by their title.
They were hosted by a Wikia wiki.
Whenever a search query is issued with mini in front, the results page looked in the wiki for a mini article with a name that matched the search query. If no matching article existed, the search user was given the opportunity to write a new one.
Social network
The user interface was tied in with a social network application, called "foowi". Users could create an account for the application and fill in a profile. The system linked the wiki login to the social network login.Profile functions include Status, Basic profile, White board, Albums, Friends, Personal and Work.
Web search engine
The web search engine consisted of the following components:- Crawler(s)Web crawlerA Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner or in an orderly fashion. Other terms for Web crawlers are ants, automatic indexers, bots, Web spiders, Web robots, or—especially in the FOAF community—Web scutters.This process is called Web...
(GrubGrub (search engine)Grub is an open source distributed search crawler platform.Users of Grub can download the peer-to-peer grubclient software and let it run during computer idle time. The client indexes the URLs and send them back to the main grub server in a highly compressed form...
), - IndicesIndex (search engine)Search engine indexing collects, parses, and stores data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval. Index design incorporates interdisciplinary concepts from linguistics, cognitive psychology, mathematics, informatics, physics, and computer science...
, the search engine proper (three selectable indices, by default an index that uses NutchNutchNutch is an effort to build an open source web search engine based on Lucene Java for the search and index component.- Features :Nutch is coded entirely in the Java programming language, but data is written in language-independent formats...
) - and browser based results presentation (written in JavascriptJavaScriptJavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
).
The results presentation used XML-formatted requests to query the index. The XML format is called "Open Index and can be used to query indices other than the one at Internet Systems Consortium (ISC)
Internet Systems Consortium
Internet Systems Consortium, Inc., also known as ISC, is a Delaware-registered, 501 public benefit non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting the infrastructure of the universal connected self-organizing Internet by developing and maintaining core production quality software, protocols, and...
.
The results presentation once included an option to select a different index to be used (out of three).
In early 2009, Yahoo! BOSS
Yahoo! Search BOSS
Yahoo! Search BOSS is a Yahoo! Developer Network initiative to provide an open search web services platform.- Description :...
was being used as the back-end.
Organization
The servers that implement the web search engine's default index are owned and operated by the ISCInternet Systems Consortium
Internet Systems Consortium, Inc., also known as ISC, is a Delaware-registered, 501 public benefit non-profit corporation dedicated to supporting the infrastructure of the universal connected self-organizing Internet by developing and maintaining core production quality software, protocols, and...
.
Although the index servers were donated to ISC, the index server's domain name still remains the one of the Wikia Search software labs, The search engine's main page and result pages themselves are served by Wikia (note that the result pages' content is retrieved from the index server at
swlabs.org, not from wikia.com).The social network, like the results presentation, was hosted by Wikia.
Search Wikia, the wiki which hosted the mini articles, is hosted by Wikia
Wikia
Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...
. The wiki's content is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)
GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights to copy, redistribute, and modify a work and requires all copies and...
.
Although formally owned by Wikia, Wikia's management have stated that they want the wiki's user community to govern the wiki, as is custom with Wikia wikis in general.
External links
- "Something Wiki Is Coming to the Web Search Market", The New York Times.comThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, January 1, 2007 — about Wikiasari, an upcoming search engine - Leap of Faith: Wikia's new search engine relies on the human touch to outsmart Google. Does it stand a chance? Martin Miller, Los Angeles Times MagazineLos Angeles Times MagazineThe Los Angeles Times Magazine is a monthly magazine which supplements the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times newspaper on the first Sunday of the month...
, March 2, 2008, pp. 36–40. - Evans, W. "We Find it All: Wikia's New Social Search Engine", Information Today, Inc., January 8, 2008.