Where Wikisari Might Actually Succeed
by Tony Hung on December 24, 2006
So, in a quick bid to write a “Happy Holidays” post, I came across the Times’ news about a Google Rival built upon Wikipedia (photos courtesy of TC ). Now, of course my own knee jerk reaction was, as I’m sure, similar to many. A loud “wtf?”, followed by a condescending chuckle, followed by a click away to my gmail account. Then, I thought — well, wait a second. Is it that harebrained after all?
Ask yourself a question:
What does Wikipedia excel at — to the point of dominating the first few spots of a mountain of Google Search Engine Results? Well, its not necessarily recent or cutting edge stuff — like medical breakthroughs, or what Brittany’s done now.
No, instead, what Wikipedia does best is what any encyclopedia does best: it gives a thorough description and explanation of given always-revelevant, “evergreen” topics. Christmas. Nuclear Reactors. The history of the Internet. George W. Bush. Its all there.
Before you too click away from Wikiasari as another wild VC funded pipedream, consider what you yourself have gone directly to Wikipedia for. Just like a higher proportion of my readers use Firefox than the average (almost 70%), I suspecct most have the savvy to use Wikipedia for looking up topics that they might not already know about; topics that require a broad explanation of the issues all in one place. And they might go directly to Wikipedia to search for them — not Google.
Say for instance the other day. I was looking for the difference between an Anglican, Catholic, and Baptism meaning for the word “Baptism”. Try googling THAT on Google! No seriously, I’ll wait.
What ended up being the number one result for my series of keywords “baptism baptism anglican catholic “? Wikipedia’s own entry on “Baptism”!
I don’t know exactly what Wikiasari has planned for new and recent topics, but for old “evergreens”, it might have a chance if its based on a resource that rocks Google anyway — and has a high degree of “trust”, no matter how you define it. What’s more, everyone, from the Geeks, to the MSM (to geeks who are part of the MSM) loves the underdog, and furthermore, businesses would love the chance for some real (more) competition on Google.
I’m not sure what 2007 holds, but don’t dismiss Wikiasari out of hand. It might just be the surprise of the new year.
One comment
[...] So how is Wikisaria going to be different than Google? Well as Time Magazine made clear earlier this week, Wale is depending on “you”. Huh? Rather than use mathematical algorithms to come up with the best search results, Wales wants to use the Wikipedia model and have humans actively involved in creating the best search results. Sounds a lot like Prefound, et al are trying to do so perhaps Wales has different tactic. As much as user-generated content was one of the major themes of 2006, Google’s continued dominance of the search market continues to be one of the most compelling elements of the Web’s evolution. What almost as fascinating is there are no lack of people and investors willing to take a crack at building a better mouse trap. Let’s see how Mr. Wales – and Amazon – make out. For more, check out Deep Jive Interests, Mathew Ingram, Peter Cashmore and Niall Kennedy. [...]
by Mark Evans - A Canadian Take on Tech on December 24, 2006 at 11:22 am. #