Wikia CEO Talks Up Search Transparency

By Greg McNevin

January 16th, 2007: The information age is well and truly upon us and search engines are the new gatekeepers for the world’s data. According to the guys at Wikia, however, search is busted.

So what is wrong exactly? To use the words of one Wikipedia’s founders, Jim Wales, on search.wikia.org “Search is part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. And, it is currently broken.

“It is broken for the same reason that proprietary software is always broken: lack of freedom, lack of community, lack of accountability, lack of transparency. Here, we will change all that.”

IDM recently spoke with Wikia CEO Gil Penchina about the project’s genesis, their vision and how it will change the information landscape.

“Jimmy had the idea for a user-powered search engine back in 2004, and named the project Wikiasari,” says Penchina. “Recently, we started thinking about how to turn that into a reality.”

After the story was picked up by media outlets the world over, Wikiasari has more or less become the default title for the project, however, its name and many of its intricacies are in reality yet to be decided.

“We're still talking to the community about naming ideas, for now it is a technology and volunteer project, so we have some time,” says Penchina.

With such a vast array of information out there and billions of search possibilities, the project has a lot of work ahead not only in its technical development but also to crawl the web and sharpen result accuracy. ”Like wikia and other user controlled projects, in the early days, you have a rough rock, but with enough polishing a diamond emerges,” says Penchina.

Current search techniques can be twisted to yield more desirable results for affiliates and advertisers, not to mention to appease less than liberal governments. When asked if the Search Wikia project will be able to avoid these issues through its openness and user rating system, Penchina says that: “All ranking decisions will be transparent and auditable by anyone. We believe that transparency reduces the risk of commercial interests trumping the ‘right answer’.”

Since the story broke, Wikia has been inundated with volunteers and enthusiasm for the project has taken off according to Penchina.

“I am astonished at the worldwide interest this simple idea has generated, the 100's of volunteers who have already shown up and the passion for change that we have seen.”

Google killing shouts may be a touch pre-emptive at this point, however, with enough people power anything is possible. Check out the upcoming print issue of Image and Data Manager for the full interview.

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