Last week, Google announced it was developing a rival to Wikipedia, codenamed “The Knol Project”. The main difference between the two is that Google will work on “Highlighting Authors of Encyclopedia Entries”, whereas on wiki, everything just appears anonymous.
It seems to me that Big G will have a long way to go if they wish to reach the size and reach of Wikipedia. They are offering some innovative ideas, such as showing who wrote an article and reviewing current existing articles in the Knol’s archive.
However, I believe this will be the downfall of the project:
Knols will include strong community tools. People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.
With the addition of comments on articles, no Google Moderation, and most of all ads, the Knol Project seems to me like it will be nothing more than an advanced Blog Content Management System.
It sounds a lot like a giant blog, like you said. Google’s best bet to combat Wikipedia is to do what they always do with unique services - buy them out.
Great point, Meg
However Wikipedia is not a for-profit organization, and I don’t think they would have much interest without some sort of return investment involved.
Content … Content …Content …
adwords + adsense …adwords + adsense …adwords + adsense …
$$$ … $$$ …$$$ for Google
lol to that nBridges