Wikipedia is about to launch Search engine

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.org said that they are about to launch a search engines whose algorithm will be published publicaly. INTERESTING ONE!

SOME QUOTES
Wales also said that the Wiki Search engine, part of Wikia, a commercial venture that he floated in 2004, is due for launch before the end of this year. The search engine would use algorithms that would be published for view by all.

Isn't that dangerous, given search engine automisers and spammers who could tweak it to their benefit?

Sure, says Wales, "But security through obscurity is a bad idea." If you have published algorithms, then everyone, including scientists can see it. Then those illuminated minds could contribute to the improvement of the product, is the inference. "But if it is kept secret, then the bad guys, who have all the time in the world and are dedicated to gaining access to your algorithm, will somehow find a way."

for more http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14396926

From what I heard I thought it was going to be human edited just like the wikipedia so the only way to manipulate would be to become an editor. That is the way i took it.Maybe I misunderstood though.

Now what was that I was stupidly suggesting the other day about Google releasing it's algo every couple of years...?!

I think what has enticed them to do it is that major search engines rank them on the first page for highest search volume keywords

se's rank them for highest searched kw'ds but i guess google will discount their weightage as google doesn't like competition.

big G eats its competitors.

I hope so, Wikipedia always in my way to get higher ranking for many keywords

this will be great lets watch how google deal with his competitor

Hi,

I haven't seen any evidence of this yet? Does anyone know when this is going to happen? I'm sure Google aren;'t too worried about it- they are far too powerful!

Ja, it will be a real webmasters battle for SERPs but won't get much support from the public if they only find spam sites and MFAs on the first 100 pages instead of what they're looking for.

I'm sure any wiki is aware of this. They may reveal bits of the algo but probably won't make everything public.

But that's just my thoughts, and I have been wrong before

I have some links from Wiki.

Guess I would have a top spot

no; links from wikipedia might not help you...

No; the entire algo will be made public; and you can understand why a particular site is #1; and I hope the SERP's of wikia to be as good as google results with less spam. You can read more about wikia search here... http://search.wikia.com/wiki/Search_Wikia

yeah...I know they are nofollowed..but who knows it might

j/k btw ;)

This is a horrible idea. I understand the principles behind it, but it will not work. Although scientists might be able to make up better versions of the algorithm, as soon as they are published, every SEM will be looking through there and catering their website to rank at the top for their keywords. This will make the search results inaccurate and only give us the websites of the people with the best SEM's.

but who is going to optimise their page solely for a Wikipedia search engine if it is a totally different concept and algorithm than Google. Google will always bring in the most traffic. LEts hope people do go down the Wiki route of optimising for them, then their will be less competition on Google (if the algorithm's are different!)