When Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launched Wikia Search his aim was to create a community-led search engine, however Wikia Search has been ditched. His decision to “close the doors” on the project was announced in a blog post. Mr Wales Wikia Search “has not been enjoying the kind of success that we hoped for”. He blamed the recession for his decision to withdraw funding but promised to continue as a “cheerleader” for alternatives to Google. “I personally believe in the opportunity for free software to make serious inroads into the search space. In a different economy we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely,” he said.