Google Knol

Posted on July 23, 2008

It was inevitable that Google would try to move into Wikipedia territory. Today they have. Of course, they are starting about a bazillion articles behind.

Some time back, Knol was mentioned and some info was given about its eventual introduction. No need to describe a Knol since I just mentioned that it is a competitor to Wikipedia. If you understand Wikipedia, you understand Knol. It is simply an authoritative article. That means it is written by someone who knows something and is willing to share their information.

Google well states that not everything worth knowing is on the web. An awful lot of info is simply in peoples’ minds and that is what Knol invites people to do, author a knol and share what they know with all those who desire to know it.

One of the pressing problems that has gained much publicity in the last year or so for Wikipedia is the editing dilemma. Since it was created as an open project, anyone could edit an article. And they often did, creating sometimes embarrassing situations where people or companies or governments edited out things they found unfavorable.

Google is taking a different approach with Knol. Every knol will have an author (or several) who put their name behind their content. If I want to make edits to the knol, I can do so, but they will not become visible to the public until the author has accepted them.

Of course, Google would like to run their Adsense ads on everyone’s knol but that will be left up to the author of the knol. If the author elects to show ads, he will share in the revenues.

There are distinct possibilities for a good end result from this latest addition by Google, especially since someone else will be growing the product and exercising content control. Google just provides the space and the ads. And with the possibility of earning a little money without paying for a domain or hosting fees, they should get a lot of takers.