Wikipedia starts work on $2.5M internet search engine project to rival Google [pdf]
Summary of the approach (p10):<p>&quot;1) Public curation mechanisms for quality;<p>2) Transparency, telling users exactly how the information originated;<p>3) Open data access to metadata, giving users the exact date source of the information;<p>4) Protected user privacy, with their searching protected by strict privacy controls;<p>5) No advertising, which assures the free flow of information and a complete separation from commercial interests;<p>6) Internalization, which emphasizes community building and the sharing of information instead of a top-down approach.&quot;<p>My first thought: How will transparency impact SEO? Will spammers be able to better game the algorithm when they know its internals?<p>However I am excited at the prospect of a wikipedia-like public curation system for the entire web. I admit I&#x27;m flabbergasted that the whole thing ever worked, but it does.