Search engine startup Wikia, which is trying to give search a more personalized feel, launched Oct. 8 a platform that lets programmers integrate content from popular sites such as Digg, Twitter and Creative Commons to improve the search experience. Wikia co-founder and Chairman Jimmy Wales told me the WISE (Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions) platform is a kind of a "Facebook Apps for search," allowing third parties to create the mini-applications, or WISEApps, to help bring the content into Wikia.

"[WISE] is a really super-simple API that people can use to create little applications that provide people with better search results," Wales said.

The idea is to improve Wikia's search results, saving users the trouble of visiting Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live Search or other search engines to find what they are looking for.

This sounds suspiciously like Yahoo's Search Monkey platform, which also lets programmers write applications that boost the relevance of search results. 

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