Wikia Search, the “open source” search engine that launched to great fanfare earlier in the year, has introduced a new platform (Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions or “WISE”) that allows third parties to provide an enhanced search result—known as a “WISEApp”—for specific keywords.

WISEApps allow publishers or searchers to enhance search results, in a similar way to Yahoo’s Search Monkey or Google’s SiteLinks enhancements.

For example, the Washington Post WISEApp provides people searching for specific information, such as “Barack Obama” or “John McCain”, with relevant news stories from washingtonpost.com directly within the Wikia Search results page.

Other companies introducing WISEApp’s today are:

• AccuWeather.com: provides people searching for local weather information with full, graphically-enhanced, three-day weather forecasts directly within search results
• AcronymFinder: provides acronyms, abbreviations and meanings for relevant queries
• Amie Street: provides information on independent music for relevant queries
• Creative Commons: provides Creative Commons-licensed images for relevant queries
• Digg: provides recent front page Digg stories for relevant queries
• Indeed: provides job listings for relevant queries
• Kayak.com: provides people searching for information to complete a travel itinerary with the ability to set basic parameters for their trip directly from Wikia Search results pages
• Last.fm: provides band, artist, and song information for relevant queries
• Polar Rose: provides digital photo results for relevant queries
• Thomson Reuters: provides people with financial news for various companies
• Twitter: provides relevant Tweets for various queries
• PleaseDress.me: provides details on tee-shirts for relevant queries
• Snooth: gives people searching for wine direct access to Snooth ratings, pricing and related information directly within Wikia Search results
• Yelp: gives people searching for information on a wide range of local businesses—including restaurants, bars, hotels and more—Yelp ratings and reviews directly within Wikia Search results

More information about WISEApps can be found on the Wikia Search site.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Other Search Engines | Search Engines: Search Wikia | Search Features: Enhanced Listings

About The Author: Chris Sherman (@CJSherman) is Executive Editor of SearchEngineLand.com and President of Searchwise LLC, a Boulder Colorado based Web consulting firm. He also programs and co-chairs the Search Marketing Expo - SMX conference series. See more articles by Chris Sherman