Wikia Search finds its way to the bitbucket

The contributions counter on the front page ticks slowly, slowly along, but it would be faster to watch the minutes count down for Wikia Search, Jimmy Wales' "people powered" would-be Google competitor, which announced Tuesday that it was shutting down at day's end.

The Wikipedia founder wrote in his blog that the project "has not been enjoying the kind of success that we had hoped." Wikia Search, known early in its career as Wikiasari, was launched in January 2008, and rolled out its Wikia Intelligent Search Engine for developers in October.