This week’s launch: Wikia Search, the user-edited search engine from the folks who brought you Wikipedia. An algorithm does the “heavy-lifting” to find information; users do the refinement to perfect the rankings. As Michael Arrington observes and Silicon Alley Insider opines, Wikia Search sucks.
But the human editors haven’t started work yet (editing features aren’t even turned on)—so it’s unfair to pass a hasty judgment. Indeed, my prediction is for good things from Wikia Search. And spam will be the reason.
As 360i’s David Berkowitz noted in Search Insider last year, the ease of human editing will make Wikia Search a spammer’s delight. But enough spammers may just cancel each other out—and crowd wisdom will lead to the best results.
Sure, the engine sucks now. But that’s because it hasn’t been sufficiently spammed yet.
