The search engine market is full of competition, and it seems that another competitor is about to enter the ring. Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has begun working to launch a search engine that he believes will rival Google. The unique characteristic of this search engine that will set it apart from others is that it will be based off of human judgment rather than algorithms.

The rival search engine has been dubbed Wikiasari. Although many news sources around the web have claimed that Wikisari is being funded by Amazon, in a statement Jimmy Wales put these theories to rest by saying , “Amazon has nothing to do with this project. They are a valued investor in Wikia, but people are really speculating beyond the facts. This has nothing to do with A9, Amazon, etc."

Currently, Wikisari is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2007. The name is a combination of Hawaiian and Japanese. Wiki is the Hawaiian word for “quick” while asari is the Japanese word for “rummaging search.”

The search engine will be built on user-based technology similar to that of Wikipedia. Wales claims that Google’s computer-based algorithmic searches are open to manipulation and are no match for human judgment, which is what his new search engine will primarily use.

The announcement of the new search engine comes just days after Amazon announced that they will be the first corporate investor in Wikipedia's commercial arm, Wikia.