The search engine wars about to see the entrance of another contender:  Wikipedia.

Well, not exactly Wikipedia.  The company behind Wikipedia, Wikia, is slated to enter the search engine market early in 2007 with the release of Wikiasari.  Wikiasari aims to take on Google and Yahoo with an unique approach to standard algorithmic search technology.  According to The Times, the search engine will use the same technology that Wikipedia is built upon that ultimately puts people in control of search engine results as opposed to a computer.

In addition to using the same technology as Wikipedia, Wikiasari will use Wikipedia as a major source of content and as one of the main determiners of whether or not a link is considered "trusted".  In contrast, Google determines the rank of a website based on a number of factors, one of which is the number of sites that link to it.  For Wikiasari, a link's inclusion in the open source Wikipedia will play a large role in determining search rank.

Wikia has supposedly secured several million dollars to apply towards the project from Amazon.com and a private group of investors.  And while The Times article describes the new search engine as a joint project between Wikia and Amazon.com, the Wikiasari website says differently.  Wikiasari.com explicitly states that 1) Amazon.com is a financial contributor only and 2) a screenshot on TechCrunch is not, in fact, an exclusive screenshot of the upcoming Wikiasari.

I guess we'll just have to wait to see how this one pans out.  Will it be another Open Directory-style project?  Can the human-based search engine best the computer?  Time will tell.  But one thing is sure:  if you haven't the first clue about wiki, now might be a good time to start brushing up on those skills.  It might turn out to be a huge flop.

But who knows… it could also topple the mighty Google.  And I say it's best to be prepared.