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Jimmy Wales to take on Google, Yahoo!
'Wiki search tech will find a way... '

By Reuters

Published: Friday 09 March 2007

The online collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google and Yahoo!.

Wikia, the commercial counterpart to the not-for-profit Wikipedia, is aiming to take as much as five per cent of the lucrative internet search market, said Jimmy Wales, founder of the popular internet encyclopedia, at a news conference in Tokyo.

Wales said: "The idea that Google has some edge because they've got super-duper rocket scientists may be a little antiquated now."

Describing the two internet behemoths as "black boxes" that won't disclose how they rank search results, Wales said collaborative search technology could transform the power structure of the internet.

Wales, a former futures trader who has become an evangelist for the free sharing of technology, said users could work together to improve search engines, just as Wikipedia users had tweaked and rewritten articles on the sprawling encyclopedia.

The process of constant improvement would also make search technology less susceptible to spam, he said.

Founded in 2004 and now employing a staff of more than 30, Wikia hosts group publishing sites on a wide range of topics - from psychology to the Muppets.

While Wikia gives away its tools free to users, the company requires that sites built with its resources link to Wikia.com, which makes money through advertising.

While Wales declined to give any profits targets, he said the company had received a $4m investment from "angel investors" as well as a "very large investment" from Amazon.com.