At a recent press conference in Tokyo, the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, outlined plans to build a search engine that would rival those of Google, Yahoo! or even MSN. In his talk, he pointed a finger at the web search giants for implementing freedom of information, while denying access to how they make that information available. This has always been the flip side of the Google coin, the Jekyll and Hyde of organising and distributing information while at the same time holding an iron grip on algorithms and search policy. But can all this change, not only for Google or Yahoo!, but for the average internet user?
In direct opposition to a search engine, the Wikia format hands over their code for free in a basic install. Moreover, they allow you to take their data for free. This is a subtle difference, indeed, and one that needs to be noted carefully: a search engine allows you to search and access the data it stores while Wikia enables you to download, install and make available that data - thus, allowing you to form of a 'mini search engine' in your own right. At the talk in Tokyo, Jimmy Wales announced that it's time to take his distribution of information a step further and launch his own search engine.
If we were to speculate how this would work, we'd need to look no further than the recent Google developments in personal search. If Wikia allows you to edit the results of a search engine, it's actually helping you create your own search engine with personalised results and sources.
For example, if Linux fans want all their code searches to return only with open-source, then they'll be able to taper their Wikia search to do this for them. It would be even more interesting if they could then access the Linux Wikia searches of other users - maybe even that of Linus Torvalds. That kind of freedom of search is precisely the fire that Jimmy Wales can steal from the internet gods.
