Knol: Google’s challenge to Wikipedia
Last month Google forayed into another segment of world wide web in the form of its new offering called Knol. According to Google the web contains enormous amount of information but the creator of those information is never credited. Apart from that not everything on the web is well written or organized to make it discoverable.
With the offering of Knol Google wants authoritative writer on a topic to write on that which will give a more genuine article and with the author’s permission others will be able to contribute on that article unlike Wikipedia. Visitors can comment on the articles and provide their fedback and rate the articles. Obviously better rated article will have a better ranking in Google search. Google will provide all the means of authoring articles and posting and hosting it.
As Wikipedia is free for anyone to modify the topic, in many cases the integrity of the article is lost. Which will not occur in the case of Knol. If users wants to add anything they have to take permission from the article author or they can put in the comment section. It is also expected that Google will implement revenue sharing technique with the authors. So chances are that good articles will provide good revenue to the creator.
Currently registration to Knol is based on the basis of invitation but in near future it will be open to all like all other google service. When it will be open to all there will be duplication of the article on the same topic so better article with good rating will appear higher in google search.
Now the obvious question that arises is though there is Wikipedia with such huge content with such a massive collborative effort why google is planning to build thier own databse. The answer is as obvious as the question. If you are an avid searcher, you must have noticed that for many search terms like World War II: #1, Israel: #1, George Washington: #2, Wikipedia articles appear at number 1 or 2 or atleast in the first page of Google search. So google wants to kill that enormous amount of traffic that flows to Wikipedia. Another reason about Google competing with Wikipedia is because of the fuss about the launch of Wikia the search engine from Wikipedia founder, which is projected as the “Google Killer“. It is time for us to wait and watch the show and find out who is the winner. For discussion on knol, you may move to knolstuff a community dedicated for knol.
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Comment by USC Trojan Fan on 21 January 2008:
Google has an uphill battle, but I have no doubt that if they poured enough resources into the project that they could take wikipedia out of the game entirely. I don’t see why Wiki refused to be bought by google in the first place, would have been a perfect fit. Maybe just ego on the part of the owner.
Comment by Ajay M on 21 January 2008:
Exactly USC, this must eb an ego factor.
Comment by Rob on 21 January 2008:
I don’t think Google are particularly good at the ‘social’ side of the Internet. It’ll be interesting to see how this project goes. As USC Trojan Fan says, if they pour enough resources into it, they may win the battle with this one.
Comment by Wild Goji Girl on 23 January 2008:
Interesting, I hadn’t heard of this. Why’s it called ‘knol’?!
Comment by Ajay M on 23 January 2008:
@ Wild
Knol stands for a single unit of Knowledge according to Google. May be they are in the process of creating a new english dictionary.
Comment by Cuban Cigars David on 24 January 2008:
What sets the Wikia search engine apart from Google? I hope Google get a run for their money!
Comment by Music Site on 27 January 2008:
I think you made a good point about why google would do that when there is a huge search engine full of database like Wiki, I think google can beat wiki within the next 2 years, cause I believe that google wouldn’t start something if they didn’t already calculate it and are sure of winning,
Thank you for this information,
Regards.
Comment by TigerTom on 28 January 2008:
With the amount of money they have, they can afford a few turkeys. If they can make a better Wikipedia Mark 2, good luck to them.
I just wish there was a popular alternative to Google itself; it’d be healthier for da innernet.
Comment by Ernesto on 12 February 2008:
Wikipedia is way established as an information website. I myself go to Wikipedia everyday just to check on anything I need information on. Google has to make major moves in order for Knol to capture even a part of Wikipedia’s readers.
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Comment by betterwin on 23 February 2008:
This could be a new spot: “Don’t touch my Wiki!”
Comment by moregadget on 4 March 2008:
google indeed always bother with something that they didn’t fully controlled, just another arrogant move by google.. I would never leave wikipedia…