What can you say about a search engine that goes live in alpha mode and publicly admits it is “aware that the quality of the search results is low”? Say hello to Wikia Search, the open source brainchild of Jimmy Wales, the father of Wikipedia. He believes Wikia Search offers an antidote to the “black box” approach of the major search engines. Is he right?
Not according to most of the pundits. Michael Arrington at Techcrunch gave the fledgling search engine a review so nasty you could almost see the pixels flaming: “…it may be one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had the displeasure of reviewing…it’s barely a search engine at all…this product is an inexcusable waste of time…”
Chris Sherman from Search Engine Land is slightly kinder. While noting that “it’s really just yet another crappy search service that may, potentially, if all goes well, eventually turn into something useful,” he says that right now it’s “essentially useless as a search engine.” Ouch.
Allen Stern from Center Networks admits that he wanted to love Wikia Search. Even he noted that “finding accurate results is a bit tricky” and concluded that “Wikia Search has a long way to go in terms of interface, usability and features” before he would start using it regularly. Stern suggested that releasing the search engine in alpha may not have been the best way to go.
Clint Boulton from eWeek noted that Wikia Search’s open source approach would probably play well with SEMs frustrated with Google’s algorithm changes. However, he quoted Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence as thinking the average consumer will be less than impressed. “There have been a variety of efforts to engage users in reranking, identifying relevance, what have you, and it’s a great concept, but as a mass-market phenomenon…it hasn’t become viable in search.” If this is what Jimmy Wales believes will truly set his search engine apart and make it popular, he may have to rethink his approach.
Bad reviews inspire a certain curiosity in some of us; could it possibly be as awful as everyone says it is? After all, love it or hate it, Wikipedia has become an important resource online, so how far wrong could this search engine have gone? I set out to discover the truth. Please keep in mind when you read this review that things can change very quickly with any open source product or service.
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