In our e-marketing class, we discussed the reliability of information found on Wikipedia.com, an on-line encyclopedia edited by the user community. Since anyone and everyone are welcome to edit and add to the content posted on the sight it can be argued that much of the information cannot be taken literally. So why then is Wikipedia.com one of the web’s most popular sites, and what direction is founder Jimmy Wales headed in to maintain or even boost the reputation of the site?
A recent article written in the USA today is titled, Wikia plotting search rival Google. The article tells of how Jimmy Wales plans to build a community-developed search service called Wikia. Wikia has recently acquired Grub, a spider that will enable Wikia to search the web to index relevant sites. To learn more about this I attempted to look up information about Grub, or Grand Unified Bootloader, but the explanation used a lot of technical words and it seems as though the project is no longer operational. So we can assume that Wikia’s recent acquisition of Grub from LookSmartltd is still “under construction.”
After further investigation, I was able to find a brief explanation on the wikia.com website. It states, “Users of Grub can download peer-to-peer grubclient software. The client indexes the URL’s and sends them back to the main grub in ahighly compressed form The collective crawl could then, in theory, be utilized by an indexing system, such as the one proposed at Wikia Search.”
The plan for the Wikia search service is to use computer-driven algorithms and people to edit terms so that users can obtain links that are relevant to what they are looking for. For example, if my intentions are to look for information on Paris, France and I google the word “Paris,” Paris Hilton is one of the first four links out of 493 million that I hit. The idea behind Wikia’s search service is to untangle the multiple meanings of words so that only the links that are relevant to what the user is looking for will be hit. Thus, if this is possible, then we can expect that Wikia’s search service will not only rival such search engines as google, but also give Wikia a sustainable competitive advantage. However, if this is possible, then we can only assume that such large search engines are also headed in the same direction.
In another article from the USA today written in December 2006, Wales explains that “It is open-source software and open content. We will be providing the computer hosting for free and the publisher can keep the advertising revenue.” This also gives Wikia a competitive advantage considering that many websites require a cut of advertising revenue. Conversely, the only obligation to advertise on Wikia sites is to offer a Wikia.com link from their company website. Recall that Wales has acquired Grub from LookSmartltd. LookSmart has agreed to supply online advertising across Wikia’s websites. Wikia had formerly been using Google’s advertising service.
For marketers, it would make the most sense to advertise and promote products using Wikia’s website versus websites that require a cut from resulting revenue. It also makes the most sense to use Wikia because of its growing popularity alone. On-line advertising has come a long way from its first banner ads found on Hotwired.com. It is important for marketers to know where heavy internet traffic is taking place in order to reach the mass audience of users.
For consumers, Wikia provides the opportunity for us to post content that others can benefit from. The article explains that Wikia hosts group publishing sites on topics from Star Wars to iPods. Given the in-class activity that we conducted, we know that by using other people’s knowledge about particular concepts and product experiences, we are able to gather more information than what the manufacturers and retailers tell us. For example, Wikia users may be able to post content on the advantages and disadvantages of owning an iPod, or even the hottest spots to visit while in Vegas. Still though, how reputable will the information provided be?
http://www.usatoday.com/community/tags/topic.aspx?req=tag&tag=Wikia
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/software/2006-12-12-wiki-free-tools_x.htm
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
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