Wikia Search is going to be interesting, even though it has got some bad reviews. It is nowhere near a full-scale search engine today, but the intention is still there. The UI might not be cool or it might not be yet as deep as Google, but its true differentiator is going to be transparency. Which some of us think might repair a flaw in the way Google works. I cannot say whether I liked it a lot or hated it terribly. All I know is that I am going to keep tabs on it for a while now, it sure is interesting.
One disappointing aspect, maybe because I was not expecting it, is the whole social networking one. Yet another profile, statuses, set of friends, how they met, preferences, photos, blog, scraps and what not! It would have been cool a couple of years back, nowadays they turn me off, especially if I do not see their value in there. And a still more disappointing aspect is that I did not find Wikia using or mentioning any open standards or talk about social network interoperability. I wish it used OpenID, and I hope that it is not another Facebook. And while we are there I hope Wikia Search will talk about who owns it. I think this is what made me feel that I was trying a social network than a search engine.
I am tired of these speculations and trying out every social network that comes in. But the aspect of transparency is what makes me think positive about Wikia search. I have created an account (you will have to be logged in), feel free to add me as a friend. I have not found any public URL to the profile yet.
So I am definitely keen on the search part, not so much on the social network part unless it adds value to the search engine. If you do try it, do not expect a polished search engine, that is still in works. I am excited to see how we can contribute to it, and I have a feeling somewhere that this is also keeping Google on its toes. There seem to be different bits of information, like mini articles, mini talk and volunteered information, the challenge will be to model these all together with the search results. But yet another not-so-much-talked-about benefit can be the open search index that will be available for many others who want to build on it.
