Jimmy Wales takes on Google

Hendrik Werner takes a critical look at the new Wikia Search browser that Jimmy Wales inaugurated last week as a competition to Google. "As with his online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, Wales is expecting Wikia Search users to carry out positive and negative evaluations, our of pure enthusiasm and a thirst for knowledge, in order to assert their influence on the ranking order of the resulting lists. This is an expectation that ignores the massive number of individual interests among users, who will naturally give their own website the best notes, in order to get a top ranking in the index. … The Wikia Search project, promoted with inflated slogans, is also questionable because Jimmy Wales is not avoiding commercial interest in this case – unlike with the renowned Wikipedia, which carefully guards against the stink of a being a cash cow. Maybe he can't avoid it any longer. This Google competitor is to survive on advertising, for the time being."

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