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.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) built a better product, and now the world's merchants are shoving money in its pockets as fast as they can. This hasn't escaped the attention of Jimmy Wales, founder of the astonishingly successful, volunteer-created Wikipedia. He has been kicking around the idea of a wiki-developed search engine for several years. Yesterday in a Tokyo news conference, he reiterated his intention to pursue the search market through his for-profit spinoff company, Wikia Inc.

While Google is using their head-start and the cash infusion from their IPO to race into new web-based technologies ahead of other massively-funded competitors Microsoft and Yahoo, Wikia could be a different kind of competitor. Think mercenaries vs. zealots.

Certainly Wales will have no trouble finding investors to fund such a project. In fact, he may already all he needs -- Amazon has already dumped a load of cash on his doorstep, and other investors have sent $4 million his way. Although Wikipedia operates as a not-for-profit organization, investors drool when they dream of the dollar value of the site, the most often visited as a result of a Google search. The traffic to Wikipedia has grown by 680% in the past two years.

Wales has shown he knows how to organize large groups of volunteers to develop open source media. While this might be a long shot, who would have bet on a horse named Google in 1998? Time will tell if the wiki hive-mind can create something better than the highly-paid minds of the Google empire. Empires have fallen before in the face of hoards all focused on a single purpose.

A piece in Monday's New York Times discussed up-start companies seeking to create new search engines that are better than Google. The most interesting threat may come from Wikia (the start-up of a founder of Wikipedia), which will try to create a search engine much as Wikipedia was created: with the help of programmers and users all over the world. Since 2004, venture capital firms have invested $350 million in 79 search-engine related companies. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has invested in ChaCha, another search-engine start-up.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) investors will want to pay attention to the number of competitors lining up with the goal of toppling Google. Remember, Google began its rise to dominance over Microsoft, Lycos, and others when two Stanford Ph.D. students started the company in 1998 in a friend's garage. All it could take for Google to be ruined is for two more college students to come along and invent a better search engine. I see that as being the primary long-term risk factor for Google investors. In 25 years, will Google still be the "World's Best Search Engine"?

I'm a big fan of wikis. I often visit Wikipedia.org. I also use a cool wiki service called Near-Time, which lets you make your own wiki.

Well, now we learn that Amazon.com likes wikis, too. The company recently invested in a wiki start-up, Wikia. How much? That was not disclosed.

It looks like a part of the proceeds will go to acquisitions. For example, Wikia recently purchased ArmchairGM, so as to expand into fan sites.

Interestingly, the founder of Wikia, Jimmy Wales, is also the founder of Wikipedia. So he certainly understands how to create big audiences.

The big question is whether there really a major business here. It's too early to tell. However, it's a good bet we'll start seeing wikis on Amazon.com.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates DealProfiles.com.