Well, the waiting appears to be over, and the promised 2007 launch date was technically achieved. Wikipedia/Wikia Founder Jimmy Wales has publicly announced the private beta for Wikia Search – right now. And the public launch is set for January 7. In a note to the Wikia Search email list a few minutes ago, he wrote:

From: jwales@xxxxx.com
Subject: [Search-l] private pre-alpha invites available
Date: December 23, 2007 7:04:01 PM PST
To: search-l@wikia.com
Reply-To: search-l@wikia.com

Ping me if you want one…. we’re launched.

I’m going to be letting people in slowly over the next few days and we
are aiming for a January 7th public launch. We want to run over the
system with help from people to complain about what is broken…

Best way to ask is by email, but please don’t be offended if I don’t
answer right away. I am expecting a bit of a flood here.

–Jimbo
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I spoke with Wikia CEO Gil Penchina on the the rules around the beta – users are being asked politely to withhold posting any information about the beta until the public launch on January 7. Hopefully people will respect that – there are bound to be some major hiccups and Wikia deserves a chance to iron those out before what is sure to be a ton of attention on the product.