Wikia Search killed before it has even lived

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The economy has claimed its latest victim as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’ bid to launch a more transparent search engine has come to a rather abrupt end.

Yesterday, Wales announced that Wikia Search would be no more, citing the current financial climate as a key contributory factor.

“If there is one thing that I’ve learned in my career, it is to do more of what’s working, and less of what’s not,” Wales wrote in his blog.

“While I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into the search space, our project, Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped. In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely. It’s something I care about deeply. I will return to again and again in my career to search, either as an investor, a contributor, a donor, or a cheerleader.”

Instead, according to Wales, efforts will be ploughed into other Wikia.com areas such as Wikianswers, which has enjoyed quite a bit of success following its recent re-launch.

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