Wikiasari to Bring New Relevance to Search By: Jason Hahn - Topic: Web - Date: December 26, 2006

Another search engine?  Is that really what we need?  Is it even possible for a new search engine to even jump into the pool with the likes of Google looming in the waters?

The answer to these questions is a resounding "yes" for Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.

"The time is right, because we actually have some tools available to start building something interesting," said Wales.

The project to build an open-source, directory-style search engine began forming in September of 2002, when the initiative was called "3apes."  As of now, the newly resurrected project is code-named "Wikiasari," which is the combination of two words: "wiki" which means "quick," and "asari" which means "rummaging search" in Japanese.

Just like Wikipedia's approach, Wales hopes that Wikiasari will be able to take advantage of human judgment and influence to determine search results page rankings.  Ads will be used to earn revenues.

Wikipedia has not been free from problems that are the direct result of the innate vulnerabilities of the model, but it is still embraced as a trusted and convenient source of information about anything and everything.  Now, the main question is whether or not Wikiasari can curry the same favor with users looking for information on the Internet.

Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Ask, and AOL are the five leaders in the market right now, and leave little room for a newcomer.

Word is that Wales is eyeing a 2007 launch, and it will be a lot of fun to see what Wikiasari will serve up, and to see the challenges that it faces with its dependence on human judgment and influences.

You can read more about this here, here, and here.  You can also see a screenshot that has been deemed irrelevant to the project here.