Wikia Search Out Of Options

So much for Wikia Search.  Other Wikia properties will live on, but this one service, which represented a foray into the field of user-generated search, will close today according to Jimmy Wales himself. 

Wales, who hadn’t made a post on his blog since January 20th, admitted in an addition this morning that "Wikia Search . . . has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped."

He then continued, "In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely.  It’s something I care about deeply. . . .  But for now, we will be closing the doors on the Wikia Search project (as of March 31, 2009) and will be re-directing and refocusing resources on other Wikia.com properties, especially on Wikianswers."

This development represents quite a blow to supporters of user-generated search.  After all, since the man behind Wikipedia couldn’t make it work, the odds of another contender getting ahead seem pretty slim.

Still, at least for a little while, the closure of Wikia Search might give Mahalo a little bit of a bump.  And Wales shouldn’t be too depressed over this little defeat, as Wikipedia achieved complete victory over Microsoft’s Encarta yesterday.