Wikipedia is considering to develop an Open Source Search Engine for its users and it may change the whole game. Their vision is quite democratisation on this new open search engine can provide the best and relevant information to its users absolutely free from various commercial interests. This might be a better search engine, however; not everyone is happy about it.
Wikimedia also has a team of search engineers that have started this project and also initially tasked with creating better links. The main purpose is to make this new idea a truly searchable open knowledge hub for everyone.
They also said that they will also add multiple data sources, the first one OpenStreetMaps, for improving the search beyond just text. This will include contextual items as well that would be pretty difficult to find before.
Wikipedia also said that they are exploring whether or not this new search engine can be pre-loaded on new handsets to reach maximum audience. This can give them a new income stream.
Not to mention that the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales had his fingers burnt in past creating a for-profit search engine to try to rival Google.