Daily Clerks

Founder of Wikipedia Jimmy ‘Jimbo’ Wales has managed to put web geeks into a flutter right on the verge of the holidays’ season. The news about Jimmy Wales launching a revolutionary search engine has already been covered by numerous online publications and blogs.

The new search engine is code-named Wikiasari (with Hawaiian ‘wiki’ for ‘quick’ and Japanese ‘asari’ meaning ‘rummaging search’). Many have been quick with calling the new project a Google killer.

Wales believes (and many support him in this belief) that the major problem with current search tools lies in imperfect search algorithm. So if a search query is too general, it results in inevitable tons of crap. So sometimes using traditional search engines does not make any sense at all.

Usually when we think that something is bad, we try to find a better way to do it. But Jimmy Wales preferred not to develop a new search algorithm and decided to launch an editorial-based search system that must boost quality of search results.

In general, I would not claim this to be a very innovative and unique idea. At least Wink and Jookster are based on the same principle. But anyway it is absolutely impossible to make any comparisons until the product launch.

And still we don’t have any reliable information about the new product’s functionality or at least its appearance. For example, TechCrunch published a post with an exclusive screenshot of the new product (obtained from an unspecified source) but Wales himself refuted the post and told the screenshot had nothing to do with his new project.

The same fate has befallen the statement about Amazon investing in the new product. Wales told that Amazon has nothing to do with the project as well – the company is only Wikia investor.

So currently we have more rumors about Wikiasari – with almost no true facts. Jimmy Wales promises to launch the product sometime early next year – which really is not too long time to wait now.

Jimbo Wales, Jimmy Wales, search engines, search tools, web 2.0, Wikia, wikiasari, wikipedia, wikipedia search

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