[Search-l] _Herald_: "Wikipedia confident its search has found way to beat Google"

[Seth Finkelstein]

[Disclaimer - I didn't write this. The Wikipedia vs. Wikia confusion
is from the article's author, and we all know it is a mistake]

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/focus/display.var.1436537.0.0.php

Wikipedia confident its search has found way to beat Google

The Wikipedia internet encyclopaedia is taking on Google by launching
its own search engine.

It plans to beat its rival by making public the computer algorithm
which determines which links are given priority on the lists it serves
up.

Google is the world's top search engine thanks to an innovative way of
determining which pages are the most relevant to a web user's query
pioneered by founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the 1990s.

Yahoo and Microsoft followed with similar algorithms to rank
pages. These algorithms form the heart of each company's intellectual
property and are kept secret.

Led by Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales, hundreds of software
engineers are trying to overturn Google's domination of the search
market.

The idea underpinning their search engine, dubbed Wikia Search after
Wales's umbrella company Wikia, is that its search algorithm will be
made public, reports New Scientist.

Wikia's search engineers believe this will elicit the trust of users
in a way that Google, which keeps its algorithm a closely guarded
secret, never will.

Open source search results will also be more relevant as the algorithm
will continually be tweaked by its users, keeping it up to date with
new technologies as they are deployed, Mr Wales says.

Wikia's California-based technology chief Jeremie Miller says that
faced with silence people rightfully question the quality of search
results.

Some ask whether Google's algorithm skews results towards its
advertising clients which earned the company more than $10bn last
year.

Google denies this but equally the secrecy means it is difficult to
prove otherwise.

Ian Brown, an electronic privacy expert at University College London,
said: "European governments have been getting concerned about the
competition aspects of search engines, particularly as Google has
become so dominant.

"They think there should be much more transparency with search algorithms."

Mr Miller said: "Search needs to be part of the internet's
infrastructure, not the domain of commercial giants. Google is an
advertising service."

Google says it welcomes the competition. Spokesperson Jon Steinback
said: "We're just really excited when a new development comes to the
space because it is good for everybody."

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