Wikia, Inc.’s operators announced this in a recent press statement. Yet this is actually not a finished search engine, but, as Wales emphasizes, the launch of a project concerned with the building of such an engine. As can be gathered from its name, Wikia Search actually accesses the Wiki-core principle. That is, it depends on the participation of the users in the development and improvement of the search results. Users can for example, rate the results, write mini-articles or, if they possess the required technical “know-how”, they can view and extend the freely accessible software.

It is part of the nature of such a project – especially in the early stages – that the search results are fairly sparse in the weeks just after inception. In addition, numerous features are not functional yet or are completely missing. An undertaking of this kind takes time to develop, as Wales says: “we expect, that Wikia Search, like good wine, will improve with age and involve more and more people.

Unlike Wikipedia, Wikia Search plans to finance itself through advertising revenues, since it is a commercial project.