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Wikia Search, a search engine with free algorithms was one of last year's most eagerly awaited projects. The wait is due to end January 7.
The search engine will go online at this date, says Jimmy Wales, the initiator of Wikia Search and the founder of Wikipedia.
In contrast to known search engines, who invest considerable funds in server farms and indexing, Wales is banking on the community. He hopes that users will install a small tool on their computers to provide resources for searching the Web and returning results to a central Wikia server. Thanks to this technology, Wales hopes that it will soon be possible to achieve as many search results as Google, Yahoo, or MSN. WikiaSearch is also looking to give users the ability to filter and rate search results.
The project takes data protection very seriously: it will not interfere with the user's privacy as data that could identify search machine users cannot be stored or transfered.
One of the biggest problems is the relatively small data basis the new search machine will originally have when the project is launched. But like the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, this is sure to skyrocket the more active users the system attracts, thus helping to establish the Wikia project.
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