Who Is Afraid of Wikia Search?

The Google search killer wannabe Wikia Search monetizes with Ads by Google (!!!) while back at Google, someone opened a bag of dirty tricks. The interjection of Google’s SearchWiki generates brand and product confusion, and possibly indicates fear in the Google search camp.

What will it be – Wikia Search or Google SearchWiki? The web community will decide.

In January 2007 SEO experts described the search startup Wikia Search as “not even a remote threat to Google” and a “complete letdown.” It’s pretty clear that a comparison with the giant of search is detrimental for any search startup: although many show promising potential, few come even close to Google’s search results relevancy. The “potential” is in the technology, but the consumers don’t care about technologies – they want results. Wikia Search came on the market with a methodology that could and probably would, with some refinements, revolutionize the search industry. Yet from a “technological revolution” to market hegemony the road is long and thorny.

Wikia Search is today close to the “technological/methodological revolution” but…

Monetizing With Google? No, Thanks!

If something transforms Wikia Search over night into a popular destination, what is the credibility of search results cluttered with Ads by Google? Click on the image below to view how Wikia Search understands to monetize its search results.

Google is the evil we cannot do without. No matter what we say, no matter where we try to turn, we all end up using Google one way or another. Google has its fingers in too many pies to be bypassed. In fact, treating Google as a “search engine” is biased. Without its AdWords and AdSense programs, Google would be just another search engine and all its other acquisitions would have never been possible. AdWords is the ace of spades in Google’s hand, the luck charm that makes Google invincible. When Google’s opponents use parts of Google’s monetization program or indices to help their developments along, what might be a competition turns into a game of catch-up.

Our advice: dump Google! Why? If you think about it, this is a little bit like Target advertising for Walmart at the store’s entrance.

Google’s Nightmare Breeds Clones

I wouldn’t call Wikia Search a search engine. I’d call it a choice engine. Yes, the search functionality is there, but then again, there are already way too many search engines on the Internet, yet none of them gives the user the power over the search results, not even Google’s SearchWiki.

With Wikia Search, anyone can choose which sites deserve a place in the SERPs and which don’t. Yes, you read that right: anyone can edit the search results. The edits happen in real time and affect all the results, not just the results in the user’s profile. Actually you don’t even need to be a registered user to influence Wikia Search’s SERPs. The concept will undoubtedly change the search industry as we know it. If Wikipedia was called by many analysts “Google’s worst nightmare” what would Wikia Search be called in its most refined form yet to come?

Does Google feel threatened? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to answer this question. Google is scared. The most recent addition to Google’s potpourri of search tools is SearchWiki. Was it an accident that Google chose a brand name so close to a competitor that was there first and developed a social search engine? SearchWiki resembles too much Wikia Search and not only in name. Technologically and methodologically Google SearchWiki is an immature clone of Wikia Search. Google purposely chose SearchWiki to create brand confusion. Wales might even have a chance in court if Wikia Search is a registered trademark.

From a PR’s perspective, and this author is a PR consultant, Google pulled a dirty trick and should be admonished for doing so. Is trademark infringement part of Google’s new marketing strategy? Let’s call a wolf a wolf. This is not about being a Wikia or a Google enthusiast, but rather about fair play. Apparently Google is not familiar with this concept.

I wonder who at Google came up with the name? Was it Joe Kraus who stated loud and clear back in June at the Supernova conference “Social is the new black” and emphasized even louder that search needs to become social? (duh!)

Or was it Cedric Dupont, Google SearchWiki’s product manager?

Whoever – It doesn’t really matter. What really amazes me is how Google can get away with anything.

When Wikia Search launched the wave of criticism was almost unbearable. Even today only when discussing Wikia Search, there are voices against a search engine that is too open to the whims of the capricious humans. An editable search engine will also make an ideal target for SEO spammers of all kinds.

So Google is coming to market with an inferior product, yet no real negative criticism has fallen on the search Giant.

Wikia Search Undoubtedly Superior – So What?

Google abused once again its virtual monopoly to the detriment of an innovation that is without any doubt superior to Google’s variant. But don’t take my word for it: go to Wikia Search and test it yourself. Do not stop at a custom search like a lazy, Google accustomed user. Learn how to use Wikia Search and configure the results based on relevancy and value. Use your better judgment to select the sites that truly deserve a place in the top results at Wikia Search and elsewhere for that matter. The superiority will be apparent in a fair comparison.

At Mashable Paul Glazowski compared SearchWiki and Wikia Search and concluded:

Wikia (Search) is without doubt the more capable of the two when it comes to search results customization and annotation. There are just more stuff that a real power user would need. And let’s face it, the only search engine users that will bother combing results for their personal best-of list(s) are the power users among us.

Conclusion

Summing up, We should scrutinize three dependent variables in evaluating what is obviously going on now in search:

First, Wikia Search needs community help as Wikipedia did. Ethically, we should all see that the real player in social search is Wikia Search and we should not support another entity that uses brand power over value power.

Finally, Wikia Search being the main contender against Google/SearchWiki on the social search level, in fact indicates that Google does have a weakness. If social search will be more relevant than current Google technology, it is obvious why Google is afraid of Wikia Search. To spell it out: Wales’s philosophy, network of volunteers and ultimately his methodology are in a different league than Google’s thinking. The Search Giant’s growth horizon is past. Google is trying to hold on, while everyone else is trying to catch up – where does innovation come from?