Web guru Michael Arrington gives a scathing review to Wikia, the community-powered search engine that went live over the weekend, calling it "one of the biggest disappointments I've had the
displeasure of reviewing." After playing with the new search engine for four days, Arrington says Wikia is "barely a search engine at all." The poor review from TechCrunch, one of the Web's most
influential technology blogs, is a real blow to creator Jimmy Wales', who for more than a year has touted Wikia as the real Google killer.
Arrington called the search results "poor and
thin," which he said was to be expected had it not been for the enormous expectations placed on Wikia's launch. "Absolutely no one is going to use this to search the web, until (and if) it is greatly
improved."
Worse, the user editing part--the part for which Wikia received all its praise--isn't live yet. For now, users add keywords to their profile that they might be interested in
editing some day. Eventually, registered users will be able to edit each search result and/or write a Wikipedia-like "mini article" that appears above certain search results. They are also provided
with basic social networking elements like a profile, photo, friends' list, messaging, and even a Facebook-esque "activity stream."
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