In the March edition of ALA Techsource’s Smart Libraries Newsletter, I just read a little piece by Tom Peters about “Search Wikia.” This is a project-apparently announced in late December 2006-sounds like it is going to try and take on Google and other major search engines. The approach:

Wales believes that relevancy-ranking algorithms cannot do as good a job of judging relevance as can a large group of users applying their human discernment and judgment to search results. If a system to harness, analyze, and present the evolving wisdom of the crowd could be developed, relevancy-ranking algorithms could face some stiff competition.

Noted on their website this project is very different from the wiki search project Wikiseek.

What improved value will come of a user generated algorithm vs. the coveted proprietary “PageRank”? Will a user contribute search will be less partial and intrinsically more valuable? While this approach to search is very intriguing, I can’t even begin to imagine what an interface would look like.

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Zachary Wilson

I enjoy reading & writing about the web and digital marketing. My day-to-day focuses on ensuring our clients have big wins. That begins with extraordinary website design and UX. The real exciting stuff is helping develop strategies to drive traffic (on-site page optimization) and help conversion rate optimization (getting new sales and / or customers). With all my “other” time, I enjoy exploring new adventures with my 3 daughters and wife.