[Search-l] watchmojo.com: Can For-Profit Search Be Too Open to Succeed?

Tue May 1 23:04:47 UTC 2007

[Disclaimer - I didn't write this, it's not my work, the various
views expressed aren't necessarily my own]

http://www.watchmojo.com/web/blog/?p=1507

Can a For-Profit Search Engine Be Too Open and Transparent to Succeed?

   posted by froosh

Last week when I got back from the Economics of Social Media (recap
here), I said I would be making a couple of announcements this week
pertaining to our company, Mojo Supreme.  The announcements had to do
with WatchMojo.com, our Web TV unit which has grown into a leader in
the production and syndication of web video for broadband platforms.
I'll be making those announcements later on this week.  It's nothing
earth-shattering, but it does validate what we've been saying all year
since we launched January 23, 2006.

Anyway, this post is not really an announcement, and it does not
involve WatchMojo.com, but rather, our search unit MetaMojo.com.  As
readers of this blog know, we have developed a video meta search
since, but our first foray was a vertical search network.

Four months after announcing that he wanted to launch a Google-killer
(here's our head-to-head-to-head comparison of the search engines, by
the way), Wikipedia co-founder Jimbo Wales announced that Jabber
Founder Jeremie Miller Joins Forces with Jimmy Wales to Build Open
Search Platform.

  "Jeremie is a brilliant thinker and a natural fit to help
  revolutionize the world of search," Wikipedia and Wikia co-founder
  Jimmy Wales said in a statement. "I believe Internet search is
  currently broken, and the way to fix it is to build a community
  whose mission is to develop a search platform that is open and
  totally transparent."

Between then and now, Wales has gotten everything from criticism,
ridicule and encouragement to develop something that can enhance the
search landscape.  Of course, taking on Google is akin to having a
death wish.  When I launched our search products, I had a full-time
job, it was a hobby, a personal exercise in playing with an API, which
then grew into more.

The focus is in our video content unit WatchMojo.com, but as that
audience builds up, having a search within the network adds an
interesting twist (much like having a matching community like
StreetMojo.com).  Since our audience is watching videos we produce, we
decided to add a video metasearch.  But since not everyone watches
videos yet, we also have a vertical text-content based search tool
that brings back contextual results from best of breed publishers.

In fact, with Google accounting for 50% market share, and Yahoo!,
MSFT, InterActive Corp.'s Ask and Time Warner's AOL locking up the top
5 search positions, search is both a risky and rewarding segment of
online commerce and communications.

Search is the hubris of the Web space: MSFT might die because of it
(well, not really, but you know what I mean), Yahoo!'s Terry Semel
might be fired over it, and Jimmy Wales might lose his credibility and
hurt his Midas-esque track record by venturing in it.

Anyway, over Christmas 2006, when Wales made his announcement, he
indicated that he wanted to use the Nutch open source platform.
Having built our own MetaMojo.com domain specific vertical search
engine using Nutch, and naturally respecting Wales for what he's done,
I reached out to him with a "good luck, by the way, we have already
done a large component of what you wish to do... let me know if you
want to collaborate."

For the mojo and vision behind MetaMojo.com, click here.  We focused
on vertical search, then video meta search, this year we'll be
focusing on personalization and social search.

Anyway, Wales showed interest, then, and again this weekend when I
followed up with him.  He put me in touch with Jeremie, though asked
that I not disclose it until the information was made public.  I
chatted with Jeremie yesterday and am glad that this is moving along,
though I have no clue whether it will ever really take off.  Why?
Read on.

What is Wales trying to do?

According to a story on News.com:

  The Wikia project aims to develop a search engine, crawlers and
  other indexing tools through a collaborative, open-source process.

Of course, Wikia's CEO Gil Penchina is right when he says that
"smaller search companies that don't have the time or money to do
everything required for a complete search service themselves" might be
interested in what Wales' Wikia is trying to do, but let's not forget
one fact: unlike Wikipedia.org, Wikia is a for-profit venture.

In fact, as the same News.com story points out, "the complete business
plan has yet to be worked out, but profits and revenue may be derived
from advertising or services," according to Penchina.

"The  intellectual  property  behind  Wikia,  however,  will be freely
licensed under standard open-source mechanisms."

That sounds great in principle, in practice, it might be what hinders
the project.  After all, as I have explained in depth, we intend on
growing MetaMojo.com within the Mojo Supreme network.  Like I say,
imagine if MySpace had an in-house search unit, what would the value
of Intermix been then?  Sure, there's only one MySpace... but no one
said we wanted to be MySpace either.

Having seen Google become the most powerful entity in new media and
technology on the strength of search IP, Wikia's main challenge is
determining what is open and what is not.  It's easier said than done.

When the mailing list was made aware of Jeremie coming on board, he
added: "one of the areas I'll personally be coding and developing is
around an open protocol and how it can play what I think is a very
cool role in building a search technology community.

I spoke to him yesterday after Jimmy introduced me, I wish him luck
and we'll see how and if we collaborate as we each try to improve the
search ecosystem.

But the fact remains, there are not that many open-source billionaires
walking around, and there's a reason for that.  In search in
particular where distribution is everything and technology is
secondary, one needs to be very clear on what the business strategy is
and will be.

For better or worse, Google had Yahoo!  In other words, it's not the
technology.  And before academics, other search companies etc. will
want to partner in building out equity for Wales' project, he will
have to understand that Google envy will be his greatest challenge.

We told you, search is the ultimate manifestation of hubris online.
Upon our initial chat, we seemed to be on the same wave length if that
means a collaboration, time will tell.

Hey, it's all about transparency and openness, right?

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com/
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php