Tech News
Wikipedia founder set to launch Google rival
By Stevie Smith
Jan 7, 2008, 15:52 GMT

The Google search engine might presently by the world’s first choice when it comes to rooting through the Internet, but that’s something that Wikepedia founder Jimmy Wales hopes to change in the next couple of years.

Wales, who is responsible for introducing the online community to user-created encyclopaedia Wikipedia in January of 2001, is now looking to offer up a user-created alternative to Google with the unveiling of the Wikia search engine, reports the Financial Times.

Wikia will rely on users providing star-based result recommendations (up to 5 stars) to help others gauge the helpfulness and relevance of locations returned by their searches. Wales hopes the system will help shape future search results on Wikia to keep users connected to only the very best information.

Furthermore, Wikia will also allow contributing users to nurture the reliability of their recommendations and increase their reputations through the search engine via the feedback of others. However, Wales believes that it will require a minimum of two years before Wikia is able to carve an online presence capable of competing with existing leaders in the search engine field.

Wales has offered that it his intention to use Wikia "to build a completely freely licensed, open-source search engine," that will be more transparent than the likes of Google and other rival search destinations – all of which withhold their search ranking algorithms.

In an attempt to prevent Wikia from falling foul of spammers looking to direct traffic through to their specific Web sites, those looking to contribute ratings to the new search engine will only be able to do so if willing to sign up to the service and disclose their identities in the process.