SearchMe Launches Wikiseek, A Wikipedia Search Engine
The search engine company SearchMe has launched a new service, Wikiseek, which indexes and searches the contents of Wikipedia and those sites which are referenced within Wikipedia. Though not officially a part of Wikipedia, TechCrunch reports that Wikiseek was ???built with Wikipedia???s assistance and permission???
Because Wikiseek only indexes Wikipedia and sites that Wikipedia links to, the results are less subject to the spam and SEO schemes that can clutter up Google and Yahoo search listings.
According to the Wikiseek pages, the search engine ???utilizes Searchme???s category refinement technology, providing suggested search refinements based on user tagging and categorization within Wikipedia, making results more relevant than conventional search engines.???
Along with search results Wikiseek displays a tag cloud which allows you to narrow or broaden your search results based on topically related information.
Wikiseek offers a Firefox search plugin as well as a Javascript-based extension that alters actual Wikipedia pages to add a Wikiseek search button (see screenshot below). Hopefully similar options will be available for other browsers in the future.
SearchMe is using Wikiseek as a showcase product and is donating a large portion of the advertising revenue generated by Wikiseek back to Wikipedia. The company also claims to have more niche search engines in the works.
If Wikiseek is any indication, SearchMe will be one to watch. The interface has the simplicity of Google, but searches are considerably faster — lightning fast, in fact. Granted, Wikiseek is indexing far fewer pages than Google or Yahoo. But if speed is a factor, niche search engines like Wikiseek may pose a serious threat to the giants like Google and Yahoo.
Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion has an interesting post about the growing influence of Wikipedia and how it could pose a big threat to Google in the near future. Here are some statistics from his post:
The number of Wikipedians who have edited ten or more articles continues its hockey stick growth. In October 2006 that number climbed to 158,000 people. Further, media citations rose 300% last year, according to data compiled using Factiva. Last year Wikipedia was cited 11,000 times in the press. Traffic is on the rise too. Hitwise says that Wikipedia is the 20th most visited domain in the US.
While Wikiseek will probably not pose a serious threat to the search giants, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is looking to compete with the search giants at some point. While few details have emerged, he has announced an as-yet-unavailable new search engine, dubbed Search Wikia, which aims to be a people-powered alternative to Google.
With numbers like the ones cited above, Wikipedia may indeed pose a threat to Google, Yahoo and the rest.
