Anyone who has done a search for almost anything on Google, is almost guaranteed to have seen at least one entry for a Wikipedia item. The frequency that the Wikipedia appears for a great number of different types of search query is truly amazing.
I started using the Wikipedia when I was studying at University, as it was a great free resource to begin research from. Frustratingly, because of the fact that it is human edited, it was never a reliable source that could be quoted from directly, as it lacked Academic credibility, but it was a great location to get a feel for a topic before finding articles of academic quality.
Anyway, I digress. I have just been reading on http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/39165.html about how the company Wikia, who run the Wikipedia are looking to develop an Open Source search engine.
They are looking to long term gain a market share of search at about 5%, which though small fry compared to Google, would be making decent inroads into the market.
Despite obvious concerns of the open source nature being abused by competition and spammers, Wikia is confident that it will be able to achieve its objectives.
Although there are obstacles in the path for Wikia, it will be interesting to see if they can pull it off.
Watch this space for updates
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