Google Knol To Rival Wikepedia

Google introduces "Knol" to compete with WikiPedia

MOUNTAIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA - Google has announced their own encylopedia service, Knol, which could compete with WikiPedia. The project is going after what have long been perceived as weaknesses in the WikiPedia system.

Screen capture of what a Google Knol looks like

1. WikiPedia can be edited by anyone, Knols can not
2. Knol will be ad-supported, so that the expert writers who can contribute can earn revenue

Google is taking aim at the idea that user-generated content, although free, is often of an inferior quality to that work done by professional editors. With the added bonus of earning money, Google feels they can induce quality staff to work on their pages.

In Google's announcement about Knol, the company says the key difference between Knol and other encyclopedias is "authorship".

"The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.
With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!"

Undoubtedly, the service will generate great interest, as do all projects from Google. The idea is sound. Google has been focusing on building tools that can be used by the masses in order to create and organize content. Knol is one more step in that direction.