Wikia Search was less than everyone expected, but, maybe with the users’ help, it won’t be the beginning of the end for the search engine, which started its Alpha period in January this year.

As Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales explained, anyone will be able to contribute to Wikia’s search results, including unregistered users, as everything will work on one main principle: if you don’t like what you find, change it.

It’s pretty much a “do whatever you want with it” makeover process, and Wales believes this to be a solution to give Wikia Search a little push. The engine is currently way behind other search engines, with only 30 million links, a small number as Wales admitted.

The idea is simple: incorporate all the good things in Wikipedia, to create a good search engine; this means that the community’s preferences are essential for creating a successful wiki model.

There is however one aspect that got everyone wondering: isn’t all this going to transform into chaos? Any user will be able to modify the headlines or descriptions, and why not, spam the index.

Wales says there’s nothing to worry about. Despite the fact that there is no approval process for changes users can make, in case someone tries to spam the index, the user will most likely be blocked and the submissions deleted, The New York Times reports.

Furthermore, Wikia Search users will be able to create a profile upon registering, which will practically make the Search Engine act as a social networking site at the same time.

And no, they won’t put other search engines aside; with just one click, users will be able to switch to Google, Yahoo or any other search engine.

The project relies on users and their preferences a lot, it’s true, however, we can’t help but wonder how long is it going to take them to shape up Wikia Search in a form that can compete with other search engines out there.