The proliferation of user-generated content can be seen in the results of searches conducted on popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo. You may notice that most of your searches on these services display quite a few wiki pages, Youtube videos or blog results among the top 10 results.

Two search engine services that are still only in their early stages of development are Mahalo and Wikia search. Unlike the major search engines, which are built on as little human 'intervention' as possible, these services are looking to tap into user contributions to present better internet search results.

Mahalo employs editors who select sites and create search results pages that will be returned on searches. The idea is that selected sites will be free of redundancy and spam.

There are quite a few categories for users to choose from on the home page, with many of the pages created focusing on current news events.

The service also encourages users to suggest links and to contribute to discussions.

Wikia search, from the company that created the very popular Wikipedia, allows users to make comments and add annotations about sites returned.

It will be interesting to see how search engines that try to build on user-generated content and contributions will be able to compete against obvious industry leaders. Their services may find a niche among certain groups of users or within organisations.

Members can contact CPA Australia at knowledge@cpaaustralia.com.au with their experiences of Web 2.0.

If you are maintaining a blog, MySpace or FaceBook page, have uploaded items to Youtube or have written or contributed to wiki pages, or are using any other services, we would like to hear from you.

Reference: August 2008, volume 78:07, p. 20