Wikia Search launched today and while there has been much criticism, their principals make total sense:

Transparency – Openness in how the systems and algorithms operate, both in the form of open source licenses and open content + APIs.

Community – Everyone is able to contribute in some way (as individuals or entire organizations), strong social and community focus.

Quality – Significantly improve the relevancy and accuracy of search results and the searching experience.

Privacy – Must be protected, do not store or transmit any identifying data.

Google gives “guidelines” on how to make Web sites more SEO friendly, but why not offer complete transparency to their algorithm? The first reaction is because the algorithm is very, very complex and that an open source algorithm could be abused by those that find loopholes. Well it is already being abused by Black Hat SEO practices and that is exactly why it should be socially driven and open source! It is the very reason why open source solutions like Linux and Apache are a success: Open and engaged communities have much more combined knowledge than closed communities can ever have – even more than the smart Google engineers. For now Google is riding the wave that Microsoft did in the nineties, but sooner or later they will come under pressure and will be faced with the decision to open up their algorithm or not.

To me, the four principals of Internet search that Wikia Search has identified defines what Google means by “don’t be evil” and while their alpha release may be disappointing I applaud Wikia for doing this. Just like open source supporters have fought Microsoft, I believe the social computing community will be fighting Google some day. An ungrateful irony.