Wales swipes at Yahoo, Google
p2pnet.net news:- Former futures trader, Jimmy ‘Jimbo’ Wales plans to trade on the future again through his Wikia Inc, the company he founded last year.
In the process Wales, who created the Wikipedia, criticized Google and Yahoo for “allegedly” helping China’s censorship efforts, says LinuxInsider.
Yesterday came the news that Yu Ling, married to Chinese Net dissident Wang Xiaoning, plans to sue Yahoo US, for “allegedly” helping to put her husband in jail in China, said Voice of America News.
And Google changed its help entry from, “Google does not censor results for any search term” to, “It is Google’s policy not to censor search results. However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so.”
Meanwhile, “Wikia Inc., the commercial counterpart to the non-profit Wikipedia, is aiming to take as much as 5 percent of the lucrative Internet search market, Jimmy Wales said at a news conference in Tokyo,” says Reuters.
“The idea that Google has some edge because they’ve got super-duper rocket scientists may be a little antiquated now,” he said, describing Y&G as “black boxes” that won’t disclose how they rank search results.
But, collaborative search technology could transform the power structure of the Net, he stated, according to the story.
However, like Yahoo and Google, Wales sees advertising as the “revenue model” and is working with amazon.com to utilize it.
“While Wikia gives away its tools free to users, the company requires that sites built with its resources link to Wikia.com, which makes money through advertising” and, “Using the same root software as Wikipedia, Wikia is likely eventually to carry more articles than its counterpart, Wales says, according to Reuters, which adds:
“While Wales declined to give any earnings targets, he said the company had received a $4 million investment from ‘angel investors’ as well as a ‘very large investment” from Amazon Inc’.”
Also See:
LinuxInsider – Google, Yahoo Accused of Aiding China Censorship, March 8, 2007
plans to sue Yahoo – Jailed dissident’s wife to sue Yahoo, March 8, 2007
help entry – Google China’s internet blacklists, February 6, 2006
Reuters – Wikipedia founder says to challenge Google, Yahoo, March 9, 2007
revenue model – Wikipedia search on the way, December 26, 2007
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