When Wikipedia was conceived, few would have thought it would end up in the regular top-10 of internet sites -- but it has. The largest encyclopedia in the world has a viewership that any entity on the web would kill for. Its strength remains in the ability of anyone to create and edit encyclopedia entries, giving the power to the people (literally).

What was next, then, for Jimmy Wales, one of Wikipedia's founders? Why, a search engine, of course. Although Google has a tight grip on that market already, the new Wikia.com believes it can contend for the internet search championship belt at some point in time. It's off to a very rocky start (and sorely disappointing to many), but does Wikia.com have a chance to compete against Google where internet stalwarts Yahoo, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have so far failed? if so, why?

According to Wales, Wikia.com will succeed because it will be more trustworthy than any other internet search provider. His reason is the same one that has made Wikipedia so popular: anyone will be able to control the results returned from a Wikia.com search. No automated Google algorithms or automated software bots that can be rigged to giving certain search results.

Is Wales correct? Will customers see the value in being able to vote down results that are fluff or not very relevant better than Google's artificially intelligent software? If customers do see this value -- and enough of them start using Wikia.com -- Google could potentially see its largest threat yet in the internet search arena. But it will be years down the road from now before consumers flock to anything other than Google.

As an avid user of Wikipedia, I've come to appreciate the unbiased and incredibly detailed information that appears there on just about any subject that can be imagined. From U.S. Civil War information to human genome research to bios on CEOs, it is all there for the reading, editing and edification of anyone with an internet connection.

Scratch that -- did I say "unbiased?" While the power of crowds is theoretically known to produce the most accurate and historically correct information (no agendas required), companies and individuals that want to tilt the balance show up and start modifying "facts" with a certain slant. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia entry, and when the black trenchcoats change something to reflect some kind of favorable position, there is generally a "truthsayer" who will change it back. Consider it a game of truth-telling "cat and mouse" for the digital age.

Now, there are tools that allow the administrators of the website (and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales) to see who exactly is changing Wikipedia entries -- so that "false" edits can be tracked down to their source. Often, politicians and company execs are the ones trying to turn the tables on criticisms, but with such tracking information available from tools like WikiScanner now available, will Wikipedia be more of a trusted sources for information than it has been?

One would think that open editing accessibility would prompt massive misrepresentations, but this is not the case with Wikipedia. In fact, corporate leaders baring all and being naked is the only way many of them will survive. Twisting facts and editing entries to tilt viewpoints will ultimately lead to exposure. I won't touch political manipulation here, though that does happen. And yes, it's been exposed when it does.

Here some interesting tech news from the World Wide Web today:

• Wikia, the San Mateo start-up founded by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, is working on a search engine that will use the same strategy as Wikipedia's user-reliant encyclopedia. Wikia, which already has Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) as an investor, is expected to be launched in the 1st quarter of 2007. (VentureBeat.com)


• Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) could vault ahead of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) in 2007 to become the world's most visited Web site. Microsoft is No. 1 worldwide -- largely because of downloads of updates to its ubiquitous software -- and Yahoo! is the most visited Internet property in the U.S. But Google is growing fast and the recent acquisition of YouTube could speed up its rise. (USA Today)


• The market share of visits to Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) Apple Store (store.apple.com) showed an increase of 110% when comparing Christmas Day 2006 to 2005. The Apple Store was the fourth most visited website in the Hitwise Retail Index on Christmas Day 2006. (GigaOm.com)