This seems exciting: Wikipedia is launching a new search engine. (source) I know that Wikipedia is such a running joke that one might be tempted to issue a guffaw or two. I say, not so fast.
The “wisdom of crowds” theory works rather well on Wikipedia. If you are doing research, you’ll likely find the Wikipedia entry to be a good starting point. With all the contributions and constant edits, nothing on there can be completely nutty for long.
The weaknesses of the Wikipedia encyclopedia are, nevertheless, myriad. Those weaknesses die off in the search engine context.
Today, each time you search for something on Google, note how many filthy cybersquatter sites gunk up your results. I would imagine that a Wiki-driven search engine would eventually strangle the pay-per-click sites, and perhaps take a chunk out of the massive molasses spill that the web has become.
Try out Wikiasearch. I’d love to hear some comments on it.
