Wikimedia, the foundation behind Wikipedia, the number one online information source, is looking towards a big new market. After denials and unclear signals, Wikimedia finally revealed that a 2.5 million dollar grant was meant for stage one of a project called “Knowledge Engine by Wikipedia”…The released documents describe the Knowledge Engine as “a system for discovering reliable and trustworthy information on the Internet”. That sounds a lot like Google, even though Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales had been denying that. And it makes sense, too. A lot of searches on Google land on Wikipedia anyways. A Wikimedia search engine would allow the foundation to bypass Google.
All the information on the Knowledge Engine was revealed in a grant document. It describes the search engine as a platform that “will make the Internet´s most relevant information more accessible and openly curated, and it will create an open data engine that´s completely free of commercial interests.” This sounds like Wikimedia will still be relying on its core competences which make their business unique: A lot of users contributing voluntarily to create something incredibly big. Being free of commercial interests is also an interesting aspiration that could set it apart from other search engines.
However, Wikipedia itself is notoriously being affected by corporations and governments which can edit materials as much as you can from your living room sofa. A search engine built on that premise will undoubtedly face similar problems.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/11/wikipedia_search_engine/
