Google Killer Killed

By Miguel Helft

When Jimmy Wales, the driving force behind the hugely successful Wikipedia, rolled out Wikia Search, a community-built search engine, 15 months ago, he said that his goal was to build a “Google-quality search engine” over time.

Chris O’Meara/AP Jimmy Wales

On Tuesday, Mr. Wales announced on his blog that he was pulling the plug on Wikia Search.

“Wikia Search, has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped,” Mr. Wales wrote. He added: “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

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