Google Vs. Wikia

[Boomslang]

The long awaited Wikia Search Engine Launched just a few days ago (alpha release)

http://alpha.search.wikia.com/

What are initial thoughts on Wikia or the whole concept in general?

For those of you who do not know what Wikia is:
In a nutshell, it is an open-source search engine backed by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (and thus has a similar model to Wikipedia, i.e. relying on the community)

" I only use Google, why bother trying something else? " you may ask... well there are numerous reasons, the main one relates to privacy.
Wikia strictly does not share search data with advertisers, nor invade privacy by storing users search terms. Privacy is completely protected, with no storage or transmission of dentifying data.

Are Google worried about Wikia?
Not right now, but as it grows more powerful (and it will), things may change in the near future...

[endless psych]

http://re.search.wikia.com/search#alt%20nation

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...e+Search&meta=

Presumably it will take a wee while for the spiders to get busy and find stuff? Actually how do search engines work? Will an established search engine not always have the advantage over a new one (in terms of pages searched)?

Aslo exactly what data are google storing? If its just search terms I don't have a problem with that tbh but if information that could directly identify you is stored thats a different issue.

[Ness]

remember when there was no google and only yahoo or ask jeeve's

[Boomslang]

If you remember the SETI project where people downloaded a program to run on their computer, Wikia has taken a similar approach at the moment, with web-crawlers running on personal computers.

In actual fact I do not use Google very much at all, I use a search engine called Clusty http://www.clusty.com as it "clusters" your results quite nicely into different categories.

[endless psych]

Originally Posted by Boomslang

If you remember the SETI project where people downloaded a program to run on their computer, Wikia has taken a similar approach at the moment, with web-crawlers running on personal computers.

Something about that strikes me as more sinister then storing search terms entered by the user for some reason.

[Boomslang]

I just noticed that searching for "Wikia" on Google tries to correct the term to "Wiki"

[Ghostsuit]

I like altavista

[GreatKingRat]

Wikia is pretty bad right now, it's got a long way to go but is a great idea that will hopefully take off.

It'll never touch Google though and I doubt it'll make me switch.

[TinTin]

Originally Posted by endless psych

Aslo exactly what data are google storing? If its just search terms I don't have a problem with that tbh but if information that could directly identify you is stored thats a different issue.

Google stores everything you search for along with your IP address and the details of the browser you used to make the search. It does this to build up a picture of your search habits and to "improve the service it offers". I remember there was a story in the news a couple of years ago about the US Government wanting access to Google's search records to help in their fight against child porn. It was opposed by many privacy groups and Google as the information could indentify users.


BBC News




Also, if you have a Google Account it stores all the details of you search history and shows you the information. Like the top sites you searched/visited for or how many searches you made and at what times. I don't know if there is away to switch it off.

[Baron Samedi]

Couldn't give a shite to be honest. Don't care who knows what I've searched for unless it's used to direct marketing or similar towards me (and if that just consists of certain web pages being flagged on a search I still don't care).

Suppose it might be different if I was a rampant paedo but I'm not (honest, guv).

I'm probably missing something here but I'm sure I'll be enlightened in due course if so.