Search Results from Infothought
Wikia, the for-profit start-up described in a Trader Daily article as one Wikipedia co-founder's "effort to take the success -- and, indeed, the underlying philosophy -- of Wikipedia, and commercialize the hell out of it.", has now raised over $10...
Posted in Infothought on November 30, 2012 11:59 PM
I've written about various communities, such as Transformers and "WikiFur" which "escape from being digital sharecroppers on the electronic plantation, err, wikifarm company Wikia, Inc. Remember, that's the company co-founded by Jimmy Wales to, in the words of one article...
Posted in Infothought on October 3, 2010 11:59 PM
The "WikiFur" community has finished its escape from being digital sharecroppers on the electronic plantation, err, part of wikifarm company Wikia, Inc. Remember, that's the startup co-founded by Jimmy Wales to, in the words of one article (they said it,...
Posted in Infothought on August 28, 2009 11:59 PM
[Original reporting! Not an echo!] Oh, how far the mighty imagined Google-fighter ("killer" was overhype) has fallen. The late, only slightly lamented, Wikia Search project (Wikipedia-style search) shut down months ago. The URL was redirected to another site of Wikia...
Posted in Infothought on July 24, 2009 11:59 PM
In a final coda to the sad saga of Wikia Search (the overhyped Wikipedia-model user-generated free labor search startup, which crashed and burned into being a Yahoo front-end before imploding completely), the site http://search.wikia.com/ now leads to nothing but Wikia's...
Posted in Infothought on May 22, 2009 05:21 PM
"Shutdown of Wikia Search proves empty rhetoric of collaboration" http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/16/wikia-search-seth-finkelstein "The shutdown of Wikia Search - an attempt to apply Wikipedia-style ideas to create an open source, commercial search engine - came as no surprise to informed observers" I didn't...
Posted in Infothought on April 15, 2009 09:28 PM
Wikia Search dead, says CNET: Wikia is announcing on Tuesday that it is closing the Wikia Search product. The service was intended to be a user-generated search engine, through which users could influence the rankings of results for all other...
Posted in Infothought on March 31, 2009 11:04 AM
"In the end, it's actually about money" http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/05/wikipedia-seth "One of the perennial debates about Wikipedia is 'inclusionism' v 'deletionism', which revolves around what topics should be covered." The title isn't mine, but it does capture the ideas. I do hope...
Posted in Infothought on March 4, 2009 04:18 PM
I recently noted the Wikia Search using Yahoo operational change, speculating: "And one wouldn't want people who go to Wikia Search currently to think the results are proof of anything other than that Yahoo has a program to allow others...
Posted in Infothought on February 21, 2009 11:59 PM
Wikia Search, the project to buy Jimmy Wales a jet, I mean, have a Wikipedia-like search engine (i.e. unpaid labor does the work), changed over at some point from using their own back-end to using Yahoo! BOSS (Build your Own...
Posted in Infothought on February 14, 2009 11:12 AM
"What's in a name? Everything, when you're talking wiki value" http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/feb/12/wiki-answers-wikia "A question of confusion has no simple answer, as shown by an argument over the names of wiki-based sites dedicated to providing answers to questions" I didn't pick the...
Posted in Infothought on February 11, 2009 09:48 PM
When I wrote Roger McNamee, "Elevation Partners", and Don't Think Small on Wikipedia, I said: It's not about the minor Google-juice that the commercial digital-sharecropping startup company "Wikia Inc." gets from the nonprofit mothership Wikipedia (and that trick doesn't even...
Posted in Infothought on January 15, 2009 03:04 PM
Walt Crawford has a "Discursive Glossary" as the latest Cites & Insights edition, starting "A was for AAC", which gives a good idea of why it's of interest (AAC == "Advanced Audio Coding, the form of lossy compression used...
Posted in Infothought on January 11, 2009 11:59 PM
["Life Trumps Blogging", but some collected notes] 1) The obligatory pontification about the Google Book Search settlement, a topic on which all Google interested pundits must write about, will appear in my next Guardian column, in a few days....
Posted in Infothought on November 3, 2008 11:59 PM
A few days ago, the tech-gossip blog "Valleywag" published an item that the digital-sharecropping ad-farm, err, excuse me, "communities" wiki site company "Wikia" had laid off 30% of its staff. Recall, Wikia is the company Jimmy Wales started to, in...
Posted in Infothought on October 22, 2008 07:27 PM
Wikia Search just posted about turning blog posts into a "Wikia Search Application". That has the potential to be amazingly contentious, and dangerous - if anybody cared! Basically, if Wikia Search actually had any users, and so was worth going...
Posted in Infothought on October 8, 2008 11:59 PM
Wikia search is releasing "Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions" ("WISE"): WISE -- "Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions" -- is Wikia Search's application framework. WISE makes it easy for website owners and developers to provide Wikia Search users with search results enhanced by...
Posted in Infothought on October 7, 2008 11:59 PM
The Transformers (shape-changing toy robots) fan wiki-community, which I wrote about in my Guardian article concerning Wikia digital sharecroppers leaving the electronic plantation, has now completed their site emigration away from the mandatory ad-farm that forms Wikia's business plan. I...
Posted in Infothought on September 15, 2008 11:59 PM
I did a bit of journalism today, asking about details of the the "Jimmy Wales with Christopher Lydon" Ford Hall Forum Boston event (Thursday Sept 11, 6:30pm-8:00pm). The basics: Wales will speak in the first half for 45 minutes, and...
Posted in Infothought on September 9, 2008 08:57 PM
Another day, another gem of how Wikipedia is used to promote the digital-sharecropping of Wikia, this time from a sports site ESPN interview: [ESPN] What are some of the current trends along the Wikipedia online collaboration model, especially in sports?...
Posted in Infothought on August 26, 2008 11:54 PM
The researcher said it, not me (remember, I'm an idiot who just wants to engage in conspiracy mongering and FUD): From today's SFGate Wikimedia Foundation article, my emphasis: Ed Chi of the Palo Alto Research Center is the creator of...
Posted in Infothought on August 24, 2008 10:52 PM
Jason Calacanis's newsletter has an interesting take on the "Google Killer" storyline, which makes for a significant contrast with the Wikia Search coverage I've discussed recently: For example, when launching and running Mahalo, everyone wants me to say we're a...
Posted in Infothought on August 21, 2008 11:59 PM
When I said "I'm not worthy", it looks like someone took me at my word :-). Last week I noted an example of one of Wikia Search's problems, in that a pure equal-weight popularity voting system tends to generate buzzy...
Posted in Infothought on August 18, 2008 11:59 PM
They said it, I didn't: "World of Wiki: Potential Advertising Goldmine" And he said it, I didn't: [Jimmy Wales] gives the example of [Wikia]'s World of Warcraft community. Yes, WOW, the role playing online game (RPG) with some 8 million...
Posted in Infothought on August 15, 2008 11:39 PM
I'm not worthy: For those who can't see the image, my Wikia Search Follies blog post is the second result for a Wikia Search for [Jimmy Wales]. The first result is currently an article from The Register, "Jimbo Wales dumps...
Posted in Infothought on August 13, 2008 09:29 AM
I noticed an interesting little item in the release of Wikia Search's "Evolution" browser add-on (it's designed to hand-scrape Google and Yahoo results, but others, with much greater audience, have already chewed that over - this post is value added)....
Posted in Infothought on August 6, 2008 11:53 PM
As something of a follow-up to my last post on Wikia and digital-sharecropping, I've run across this article: GamePro Strikes Ad, Content Deal With Wikia by Mark Walsh, Monday, Jul 28, 2008 7:00 AM ET GamePro Media will exclusively...
Posted in Infothought on August 3, 2008 01:16 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/31/wikipedia What happens when digital sharecroppers are not happy on the electronic plantations? Jimmy Wales is not going to like this one! I examine the tensions between so-called "community" and commerce, actually breaking (nominally) a story about how some of...
Posted in Infothought on July 31, 2008 03:13 PM
Very interesting article here about Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia, Wikia Search, and some Google-politics: Economist: "The free-knowledge fundamentalist". Yes, I've said this before, but bear with me. I get much flak for my views. Even if this is a tale told...
Posted in Infothought on June 5, 2008 11:54 PM
I'm late to the party in blathering about the latest updates to "Wikia Search" (the attempt to Wikipedia-ize search with free labor). And it's not like my blog post is going to be much read anyway. So I'll just refer...
Posted in Infothought on June 3, 2008 09:01 PM
"The Jimmy Wales Experience" was just published in a financial press organ called "Trader Monthly Magazine". I find these sorts of articles very interesting, since they have a perspective vastly different from the Kool-Aid doled out for the consumption of...
Posted in Infothought on May 27, 2008 04:21 PM
The Wikimedia Foundation Form 990 for fiscal year 2007 is available now. for people who don't know, the "form 990" is an IRS disclosure form required for charities. And it's often full of interesting financial information. Definitely worth a look...
Posted in Infothought on May 16, 2008 08:55 PM
Regarding the list of questions on Wikia Search, Jimmy Wales wrote a reply. I'll refrain from summarizing his responses, as whatever I said could be attacked as biased and unfair. Anyone interested can read the whole thing. I'll highlight this...
Posted in Infothought on May 15, 2008 11:32 PM
Paul Vixie, who runs Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), recently posted a list of questions regarding Wikia Search (the Wikipedia-model search engine). Excerpted below: 1. why is ISC's the only backend? 2. why is Wikia's the only frontend? 3. who is...
Posted in Infothought on May 14, 2008 11:59 PM
The Wikia Search project (Wikipedia-model search engine) mailing list has had a thread discussing the status of updates and the social organization of the project, and which sort of arrangement would be best for the goals of having an open...
Posted in Infothought on May 11, 2008 04:41 PM
"When you have a Wikipedia, everything looks like an edit" http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/may/08/wikipedia.searchengines Building an editable encyclopedia is nothing compared with the challenge of building a search engine that can take on Google Note the front of the Guardian site has...
Posted in Infothought on May 7, 2008 07:50 PM
There's a Wikia Search puff piece in the Los Angeles Times: Wikia's Weird Dream: "A new search engine from the minds behind Wikipedia relies on the human touch to outsmart Google. Does it stand a chance?" It won't do any...
Posted in Infothought on April 30, 2008 11:59 PM
I continue to be unimpressed by Wikia Search, the Wikipedia-model search engine. They've released a bunch of new "social" features for editing and annotating specific results, which are not in and of themselves bad things. Yet I keep wanting to...
Posted in Infothought on April 22, 2008 11:59 PM
Puff piece: "Wikipedia founder's next target: Google" "It's no longer super rocket science that only the geniuses at Google know how to do," said Wales ... Maybe, but there's no evidence that Wikia knows how to do anything beyond fizzling...
Posted in Infothought on April 11, 2008 06:32 PM
Wikia Search, the project to bring the Wikipedia-magic of unpaid labor, I mean, web collaboration, to search engines, has not been heard from recently. A digital-sharecropper of the electronic plantation, err, community member, is restless: *Whats happening with the project....
Posted in Infothought on March 30, 2008 11:59 PM
While it may do no good for me to write posts about the pile of Wikipedia scandals, a New York Times article on its recent woes (no-reg link) contains an important mention bearing on a point I often make. The...
Posted in Infothought on March 17, 2008 07:11 AM
She said it, not me (about Wikipedia's policy): I will not edit the article any more. My concern has been stated: the policy "verifiability, not truth" is stupid. Florence Devouard (handle: "Anthere"), Chair of the Board of Trustees of the...
Posted in Infothought on February 10, 2008 11:59 PM
Accumulated linkage: The Wikimedia foundation (the nonprofit which owns Wikipedia) Financial Report is finally released. Well, that was anticlimatic. It certainly took a very long time, for apparently very little. No scandals (that can be seen ...). Literal Wikipedia cult...
Posted in Infothought on February 8, 2008 09:53 AM
They said it, I didn't: Profit-oriented Wikia eying IPO in long term Wikia Inc., a profit-oriented company set up by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, is aiming for a public listing in the long term, he said Thursday. ... Wales said...
Posted in Infothought on January 29, 2008 11:59 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/24/searchengines.wikipedia Even search engines have an axe to grind "Wikia Search tries to draw on the fear and doubt stemming from the dominance of Google" I've tried to pack a lot into this column, everything from the $50K price for...
Posted in Infothought on January 24, 2008 01:00 AM
I've been mulling over the it'll-get-better argument for Wikia Search, which has struck me as problematic: When he first announced the idea, Wales said the search engine would improve over time, much like the other project he [co]founded, Wikipedia, has....
Posted in Infothought on January 11, 2008 11:58 PM
As my Wikia Search troubles would seem to make anything I say suspect, I sat out yesterday's blog-fest reaction to Wikia Search's launch. No need for me to pundit anyway. When TechCrunch on the one side calls Wikia Search "one...
Posted in Infothought on January 8, 2008 02:54 PM
Wikia Search "transparency" doesn't seem to go too far in practice, as Jimmy Wales himself has now basically tossed me from the Search-Wikia mailing list - proclaiming at first "Seth, you're an idiot." and then immediately denouncing my "conspiracy mongering...
Posted in Infothought on January 6, 2008 12:00 PM
For whatever it's worth, a few thoughts out about the article Felon became COO of Wikipedia foundation By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer Fri Dec 21, 1:39 PM ET The foundation runs that and accepts for donations the online encyclopedia...
Posted in Infothought on December 26, 2007 07:45 AM
[Breaking echo!] The Great And Powerful Man Behind The Curtain Announceth: [Search-l] private pre-alpha invites available Jimmy Wales jwales at wikia.com Mon Dec 24 03:04:01 UTC 2007 Ping me if you want one.... we're launched. :-) I'm going to be...
Posted in Infothought on December 23, 2007 10:05 PM
_The Register_: Secret mailing list rocks Wikipedia I've been following this whole scandal myself, and my own column about it will be available on the Guardian website on Wednesday night. I have a different, more "sociological", take on the...
Posted in Infothought on December 3, 2007 11:12 PM
[Scoop! News - not an echo!] A while back, Wikia search, the much-hyped search effort by Jimmy Wales to do a for-profit search engine via a Wikipedia-like model (i.e. free labor from the public), acquired the "Grub" crawler. In terms...
Posted in Infothought on November 12, 2007 03:59 PM
There's a brief interview with Jeremie Millier about the current status of what he's doing for "Wikia search", which is the for-profit Wikipedia-model search project. I'd submitted a few suggested questions for this interview, but they were all rejected. I...
Posted in Infothought on September 27, 2007 09:15 AM
Wikia Search claimed to launch in December Now Wales plans to apply Wikipedia's experience to internet search. In December, he will launch Wikia Search, a search engine to compete with giants such as Google and Yahoo. The project could prove...
Posted in Infothought on September 3, 2007 09:43 PM
Wikia CEO on lunacy, air miles and being profitless (my emphasis below) Penchina: People say to me, "That's crazy, this is something you spend a million dollars putting together and probably a half a million dollars a year updating,...
Posted in Infothought on August 18, 2007 11:59 PM
John McCormac has an extensive mailing list post of Wikia Search skepticism: "So far there has been nothing real about this project beyond what is effectively just another wiki about the idea of a search engine" Also: "Most search engine...
Posted in Infothought on August 5, 2007 11:00 PM
Uncommon echo: updated "grub" crawler code available, though the source is in very raw form. Kudos to Michael Zimmer's detailed questions about privacy, and attempts at getting answers. He said it, not me: Wikia's Outrageous Exploitation of the Human Race:...
Posted in Infothought on July 31, 2007 11:59 PM
News: Search Wikia Takes Steps To Crawl; Acquires Grub "Wikia, Inc., the for-profit company developing the open source search engine Search Wikia, has acquired Grub, a distributed crawler platform, from LookSmart." Now, let's follow the money: Specifics of the deal...
Posted in Infothought on July 27, 2007 04:16 PM
[Original! Not an echo. Even a micro-"scoop" :-).] I can report that the "Wikipedia-model" search project (though run by "Wikia", a for-profit company which is legally entirely distinct from the nonprofit foundation which owns Wikipedia), the much-hyped potential Google-killer drawing...
Posted in Infothought on June 4, 2007 01:00 AM
FastCompany has a long article on the Wikipedia-Model Search Engine. Which, as far as I know, is still vaporware. "Wikia"'s CEO (the startup commercializing Wikipedia's influence, though technically not Wikipedia itself), said the following not me: The community has responded...
Posted in Infothought on April 17, 2007 07:02 AM
In a discovery worthy of echoing, a nugget of information has been found regarding some of the strategic thinking behind the so-far vaporware Wikipedia-model search engine. And wonder of wonders, miracles of miracles, there seems to be a method in...
Posted in Infothought on March 18, 2007 06:11 PM
[Echoed from a mailing list, a letter following-up on the Essjay deception scandal ] "Making Amends" I am writing to apologize to "The New Yorker" and Stacy Schiff, and to give some follow-up concerning Ryan Jordan (Editors' Note, March 5)....
Posted in Infothought on March 15, 2007 12:39 AM
HUH? Wikia plans editable Web search engine The goal for the project is to get 5 percent of the search market, Gil Penchina, chief executive officer of Wikia, said Thursday in an interview. He doesn't know when the service will...
Posted in Infothought on March 12, 2007 08:11 AM
Segueing to search: Wikipedia founder says to challenge Google, Yahoo TOKYO (Reuters) - The online collaboration responsible for Wikipedia plans to build a search engine to rival those of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., the founder of the popular Internet...
Posted in Infothought on March 9, 2007 11:50 PM
All that's missing is someone "wanting to spend more time with my family"
Posted in Infothought on March 5, 2007 08:44 PM
[News! Not an echo!] Jimmy Wales comments on the controversy: In his "talk page" discussion, Wales states: EssJay has always been, and still is, a fantastic editor and trusted member of the community. He apologized to me and to...
Posted in Infothought on March 1, 2007 10:00 AM
Executive summary: This is the delusion Wikipedia fosters - it's what it is, how it runs. As I read further about the scandal where Wikipedia administrator and now Wikia employee "Essjay" / Ryan Jordan pretended to be a "a tenured...
Posted in Infothought on March 1, 2007 12:56 AM
Stephen J. Dubner at Freaknomics notes "This is hardly a felony, but it does make you wonder about what else happens at Wikipedia that Jimmy Wales doesn't have a problem with."
Posted in Infothought on February 28, 2007 05:30 PM
[An echo, but one that isn't me-too - an article reporting on an event in India:] daijiworld.com: Wikipedia Search Engine Launch by Year-end, Says Founder: Wales also said that the Wiki Search engine, part of Wikia, a commercial venture that...
Posted in Infothought on February 26, 2007 09:26 PM
Since Google-killers are in the news today, for something original, let me note that despite the hype, the search project based on a Wikipedia model of user data-mining (whatever the thing is being called these days, I think the preceding...
Posted in Infothought on February 9, 2007 05:01 PM
Maybe this specific argument just comes with the territory of money and
power. But still, it's quite a feat to make me feel sympathy for Microsoft.
Posted in Infothought on January 24, 2007 06:25 PM
"News of the deal
was first reported last month, but the actual dollar amount had been
kept confidential."
Posted in Infothought on January 4, 2007 11:59 PM
Hive-Mind vs. Skynet.
Posted in Infothought on December 24, 2006 09:07 AM
If Wikipedia is the "sharing" economy's prize, it's a booby-prize.
Posted in Infothought on October 24, 2006 05:16 PM
I'm quoted in The Register: School sues over Wikipedia posts (by Andrew Orlowski) - thanks: Wikipedia's problems with vandalism have percolated to the top of the hierarchy within the organization. One of the most prominent evangelists for the site, Angela...
Posted in Infothought on July 26, 2006 11:59 PM