Wikipedia Founder to Launch Search Engine Called Wikiasari

Posted on December 23, 2006

The Times Online reports that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales plans to launch a search engine called Wikiasari.

The project has been dubbed Wikiasari - a combination of wiki, the Hawaiian word for quick, and asari, which is Japanese for "rummaging search."
Mr Wales told The Times that he was planning to develop a commercial version of the search engine through Wikia Inc, his for-profit company, with a provisional launch date in the first quarter of next year.
Earlier this year he secured multimillion-dollar funding from amazon.com and a separate cash injection from a group of Silicon Valley financiers to finance projects at Wikia.
However, it is understood that amazon has also collaborated with Mr Wales on the search engine project and is expected to lend its support to the venture in the future.

Wikiasari may have a difficult time catching the major search engines. Human power might produce better results in some areas but even the human powered web directory at dmoz.org is not as popular as it once was. A visit to Wikiasari.com takes you this Wikia page that says "Amazon has nothing to do with this project." The page also recommends the Exalead search engine.

WIKIPEDIA