Wikipedia Founder Working on User-Powered Search

An anonymous reader writes "Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikia corporation, has revealed plans to offer a user-driven search engine. Ars Technica reports that the plan is to leverage user preferences to pick the 'best' site for any given search term, while at the same time utilizing advertising for commercial gain. The article admits this may not be the ideal solution: 'Users may be reluctant to contribute to the betterment of a commercial site that may end up being bought by a bigger company. Consider, for example, the tragic death of TV Tome, a comprehensive community-driven television content guide that was eventually bought by CNET and transformed into a garish, excessively commercialized Web 2.0 monstrosity of significantly less value to users.' Just the same, Wales seems very enthusiastic in the Times Online article highlighting this venture."

Comments

Out sourced.

[BillGodfrey]

He managed to find someone even cheaper than India to outsource?

Re:Karma Whoring

[GamblerZG]

//Whatever happened to, "Do what you do best. Forget the rest"?

Didn't you get the memo, it was scrapped along with web 1.0.

The new one is "Do what people suggest, and remember the REST".

Google already has this

[zlogic]

Google already has this, only they've decided that pigeons are best for the job.

Re:Why would this work exactly?

[jacksonj04]

That's easy. You need to leverage the new digital paradigm offered to us by Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web to effectively harness and integrate user-generated and user-driven content in a dynamic framework accessable over a simple user-oriented interface via a wireless broadband multiplexed link. Fool.