Search is Editorial

Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia in the Times, arguing that they'll overtake Google with Wikia Search:

“People think of search as some kind of computer function but it’s really editorial – it’s journalism. If I type ‘Martha Stewart’ into a search engine and I get 10 results back, those results are an editorial judgment whether or not it’s made by a computer.”

A lot of the developments beyond Wikipedia are building themselves up. Wikimaps had a lot more entries to the point of being overwhelmed last time I look, for example.

The Geo offerings are great, but a bit unwieldy. The travel content is interesting and growing. (Plus Wikipedia dominates search engine results ... )

Oregon: Smoke rising from one of Google's server farms

You've got to think that Jimmy may have a point, but search professionals are ga-ga at the moment with how strong Google indexing is.

Even if Google carries on improving at the rate it has we weren't here with this scenario in the 90s with a serious community-based challenger to a corporate.