Wikipedia planning search engine

As part of efforts to widen its reach and showcase the power of 'wikis,' online encyclopedia Wikipedia is planning a search engine that is intended to rival that of Google.

"Yes, Wikimedia Foundation is planning an open search engine that thrives on the knowledge of users. The search engine is in its early stage," said Kiruba Shankar, an editor of Wikipedia here and a well-known blogger.

Shankar, who runs a web development firm, was an organiser of the recent Wikicamp-Unconference where all participants could interact freely in an informal session.

"Wikicamp was India's first real event devoted to wikis," he told PTI, referring to the Web sites and collaborative software that allow people to add, remove, edit or change content.

The response was better than expected. "We expected around 100 people to be part of it but over 350 turned up. It greatly helped that Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, flew in to attend the event," Shankar said.

The main reason for organising the event was to showcase the power of wikis. Shankar strongly feels that the wiki is a severely underestimated power tool and there are excellent uses that people are ignorant about. "The event helped in highlighting those advantages."

Many techies knew about Wikipedia but quite a few did not know how to edit a wiki. The event had a workshop on how to edit wikis. "Many corporates have installed wikis as part of their intranet to disseminate information internally," he said.

On pranks being played on Wikipedia on April Fools' Day and someone posting a story that Wikipedia had been taken over by Encyclopedia Britannica, Shankar said vandalism and fun edits were common on Wikipedia.

"The beauty of Wikipedia is that it follows the collective correction method. For every five wanting to add wrong information, there are 95 people who will correct it. It is the same case during April Fools' Day. Except that the intent to put in prank messages is very high (at that time)," he said.

"Wikipedia editors keep a close eye, knowing that there will be many pranks. Most get corrected quickly."

Shankar, also an avid and influential blogger, founded http://www.extrabed.in, "a community site where bloggers host visiting out of town bloggers." The wiki was launched in January 2007.

Explaining his reasons for setting up the wiki, he said: "I realised that there are many who often travel to other cities and they have no choice but to stay in hotels which can get expensive. At the same time, there are many who are kind-hearted enough to host visitors."