When you launch a new search engine, admitting defeat at the outset isn’t exactly a promising start. Jimmy Wales founder of Wikia Search–which launches today–did just that.
“We want to make it really clear that when people arrive and do searches, they should not expect to find a Google killer,” Mr. Wales told the New York Times.
Hmm, not exactly the statement of faith I’d want to make when launching a new product. Sure, Wikia Search may technically be in “alpha”–what happens when that gets exhausted by start-ups, will we have to invent a new Greek letter?–but do you really want the media (and users) to form a negative sentiment before even giving Wikia a chance to impress?
Judging by early reviews, Wikia is living up to Wales’ expectactions. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington–the bestower of all tech reputations–isn’t exactly impressed with the launch.
“…it may be one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had the displeasure of reviewing.”
Makes you want to rush over there and test it out, doesn’t it?
Still, the teething problems Wikia faces now will be nothing compared to the onslaught it will face, should it reach any level of success–the kind measured by market share, not self-righteous satisfaction that your search engine is built by the people, for the people.
SEOs Will Game Wikia Search Seo Updates
If Jimmy Wales thought the Wikipedia-gaming by search engine optimizers was a pain in the ass, their efforts will feeling like a welcomed pat on the derrière compared to the kick up the butt they’ll provide, once they start figuring out the inner-workings of Wikia’s algorithm.
Like other search engines and sites that rely on the so-called “wisdom of crowds,” the Wikia search engine is likely to be susceptible to people who try to game the system, by, for example, seeking to advance the ranking of their own site. Mr. Wales said Wikia would attempt to “block them, ban them, delete their stuff,” just as other wiki projects do.
“Attempt” is the key word here. Even the mighty Google has a hard time keeping the blackest of hats under control–and their algo doesn’t encourage the input of others like Wikia’s does. Likewise, when SEOs tried to game Wikipedia, it was in an effort to obtain some valuable links that would help them with Google–Wikipedia played a secondary role to their main goal. If Wikia achieves any measurable market share, it’s going to face a direct onslaught–something that might be hard to battle, when you have such an open-door policy.
And, in case you think I’m exaggerating the danger here, it’s already started–and you’ll never guess who’s first to try and pick apart the Wikia algorithm. Google’s own Matt Cutts!
It’s very early days for Wikia. I’m not about to tell you that it will face certain doom–despite my headline–but I’m not convinced that Wikia has a model that can be sustained, once it gets beyond the market share of, say, Ask.com. Still, Jimmy Wales is smart guy, and my track record of predicting failure isn’t always correct–Mahalo appears to be doing well, despite my concerns–but Wikia will at some point play a very challenging game of SEO chess. The “black” players are very adept at the game, let’s hope Wikipedia taught Wales how to defend from a check-mate.
Wiki Search Engine (née “WikiaSari”) to Launch by Year’s End
A quick refresher: WikiSeek is a search engine designed to search Wikipedia and sites that Wikipedia links to. Wikia is a for-profit company started by Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales. WikiaSari is the name of the software behind a Wikia search engine project, named in a naming contest in 2004.
Although the wiki search engine has frequently been called “WikiaSari,” Wikia does not plan on using that name. The support site is called “Search Wikia,”� but that won’t be the name of the search engine, either. Still with me?
Not to be confused with WikiSeek, the also-much-publicized NotWikiaSari wiki-inspired search engine should launch by the end of the year, according to Jimbo Wales. Wales made the statement from a Wiki Camp in India. (And no, that’s not where exiled Wikipedians go, it’s an unstructured, wiki-inspired gathering for Wikipedians.)
For those of us who haven’t been rabidly following this story, how is a wiki search engine different? Naturally, anyone can edit the SERPs. The algorithm will also be publicly available.
While Search Wikia calls this “a new free/open source search engine with user-editable search results,”� I’m thinking “Spam City.”� Whether by exploiting the algorithm (or editing it if it’s completely wikified) or by editing the results, unscrupulous SEOs (ie, the ones who actually are crooks) will take advantage of this if it’s at all possible.
According to one interview, this has not escaped Wales:
Sure, says Wales, “But security through obscurity is a bad idea.” If you have published algorithms, then everyone, including scientists can see it. Then those illuminated minds could contribute to the improvement of the product, is the inference. “But if it is kept secret, then the bad guys, who have all the time in the world and are dedicated to gaining access to your algorithm, will somehow find a way.”
They’ll find a way to exploit it . . . or erase it and replace it with, “ha ha u wont find NE content hear!”
Unlike Wikipedia, NotWikiaSari is a for-profit venture. In the same interview, Wales estimates that “if [it] garners 3 per cent of the search engine market, it would be a sustainable model” based on advertising revenues.
No comments:
Post a Comment