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Searchme Launches Wikiseek Search Engine for Wikipedia

 


New search engine improves search on Wikipedia; Majority of revenue from service to be donated to Wikimedia Foundation

WebKnowHow
Thursday, January 18, 2007; 04:23 AM

Searchme, Inc. (http://www.searchme.com/), a new search company backed by Sequoia Capital, today announced the launch of Wikiseek (http://www.wikiseek.com/), a vastly improved search engine for the popular reference site, Wikipedia. Wikiseek is available as a destination web site as well as inside Wikipedia as a Firefox extension. Wikiseek is based on proprietary technology developed by Searchme, which utilizes the suggestions of tens of thousands of vertical search engines to deliver more highly relevant searches. The result is a faster, richer Wikipedia search experience.

The Firefox extension upgrades Wikipedia's search engine to the faster, more relevant Wikiseek engine. It is available under a GPL open source license, contains no advertising and works exclusively with the Firefox browser. In addition, the Wikiseek web site is accessible from any browser and features keyword ads. Wikiseek will donate a majority of the site's advertising revenue to the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, the world's most popular web-based, open source, free-content encyclopedia.

"It just makes sense to donate the advertising revenue to the Wikimedia Foundation since our search results are enabled by the work done by Wikipedia volunteers," said Randy Adams, CEO of Searchme. "Every time somebody edits a Wikipedia page, our search engine gets better."

Wikiseek is being released as a Beta and will be updated and improved continuously, based on user feedback and new pages from Wikipedia. The service is expected to have significantly less Search Engine Optimization (SEO) spam because only "authoritative" pages, approved by Wikipedia editors, will be included. As Wikipedia grows and more links are added, the service will continue to increase in value over time as a resource for researchers, students and anyone who frequently uses Wikipedia.

"We are grateful for the contributions Searchme is making to the Wikimedia Foundation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "I hope Wikiseek's efforts will lead to improvements in the general quality of search for educational content."

About Searchme

Through its patented vertical search technology, Searchme delivers more targeted and meaningful search results to consumers. Based in Palo Alto, California, Searchme was co-founded by Randy Adams, CEO, and John Holland, CMO. The company received initial funding from Sequoia Capital. For additional information, visit http://www.searchme.com/.

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