Wikia Search Closes Shop

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikia has announced that Wikia is closing the doors on Wikia Search, deciding to instead re-direct and refocusing resources on other Wikia.com properties, especially on Wikianswers.

Wales says the main reason for the refocus is based on the strong showing of the Wikianswers Q&A site. That portion of Wikia in particular has seen tremendous growth since it was re-launched in February. Wikianswers along with other Wikia communities have continued to see strong growth while Wikia Search has not seen the growth that Wales has hoped to see.

"On the other hand, while I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into the search space, our project, Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped," Wales said in his blog post.

"In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely. It’s something I care about deeply. I will return to again and again in my career to search, either as an investor, a contributor, a donor, or a cheerleader. But for now, we will be closing the doors on the Wikia Search project (as of March 31, 2009)."