[in-enaction] google: Wikipedia engine to rival Google

Founder of Wikipedia plans search engine to rival Google
James Doran, Tampa, Florida

# Amazon.com is linked with project
# Launch scheduled for early next year

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, is set 
to launch an internet search engine with amazon.com that he hopes will 
become a rival to Google and Yahoo!

Mr Wales has begun working on a search engine that exploits the same 
user-based technology as his open-access encyclopaedia, which was 
launched in 2003.

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The project has been dubbed Wikiasari — a combination of wiki, the 
Hawaiian word for quick, and asari, which is Japanese for “rummaging 
search”.

Mr Wales told The Times that he was planning to develop a commercial 
version of the search engine through Wikia Inc, his for-profit company, 
with a provisional launch date in the first quarter of next year.

Earlier this year he secured multimillion-dollar funding from amazon.com 
and a separate cash injection from a group of Silicon Valley financiers 
to finance projects at Wikia.

However, it is understood that amazon has also collaborated with Mr 
Wales on the search engine project and is expected to lend its support 
to the venture in the future.

cont'd....
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2517026,00.html

| a.k.a Jimmy Wales' Google Bag

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2517026,00.html
(via Joi Ito)