Wikipedia Search Engine - Wikiwix

Wikiwix is Wikipedias new search engine.

One problem is that i cannot see if it is an official tool or made by a fan or developer. The reason I say that is there is no wikipedia logo, the only information about the site is from a “contact us” link that goes to a french Wikipedia page. Also, the fact that Wikiwix has been added to Wikipedia Search, something not offered to Wikiseek, suggests some sort of connection between the entities.

But with all that aside i am not taking away anything from this site, its very good (i could be picky and point out that there is absolutely no metadata present!). The search results are very clear, pretty fast and a Google-esque design.

If anyone has any views on this please let me know by commenting.

Update:
There is still a bit of confusion but this post appearing on TechCrunch Stephen Sclafani and Michael Arrington did a bit of research and found that the whois on the Wikiwix domain shows Martin Pascal is the owner and owns the French web development firm LinterWeb.

Stephen Sclafani:

It doesn’t look like they have any direct affiliation with Wikipedia, however on the translated page Martin says he has been in contact regularly with the Wikipedia foundation.

Wikiwix is also not LinterWeb’s only Wikipedia related project. They have a partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation to distribute the English and French Wikipedia on DVD: http://www.wikipediaondvd.com

Update 2:
Just to add to the new information, I have the linterweb.fr crudely translated into english!

I had a brief look and looks like they have their own search technology including “double indexing”. But they have done some work with big organisations like EDF Energy and IBM.

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