Google Knol

[crazyleaf]

Knol is a new service being developed by Google and it will serve as a storehouse of knowledge on the internet, much as Wikipedia. In fact many industry experts see this new Google service as a direct competitor for Wikipedia and similar types of websites.



While the two websites have many similarities, the main difference between Google Knol and Wikipedia is that Wikipedia allows virtually anyone to edit an entry while Knol only allows the author of each particular “knol,” – which is what the individual pages in the service will be called – to do so. This means that the same topics could have many different authors with sometimes contrasting – or even competing – points of view.



Knol – the name of which is derived from the word “knowledge” – is being developed to allow people to create Web pages on virtually any topic. When completed, it will include several features that will allow its users the ability to perform a number of tasks, such as submitting comments, rating individual web pages and suggesting changes.

At this time Google Knol is accessible only by invitation but you can take a look at it here.

Aditional resources can be found here :
- Mashable.com - Google introduces the Knol
- Google Blog - Encouraging people to contribute

[JamesW]

sounds like blogger to me... wait... maybe it sounds like a forum... hmmmn... maybe it's just a big marketing ploy to combat the saturation of wikipedia in the search results...

I hope it's nothing like Orkut... because Orkut is crud...

Wait... maybe this knol is the next myspace...

a page is a page is a page... keep it in your own domain...

[crazyleaf]

Originally Posted by JamesW

maybe it sounds like a forum... hmmmn... maybe it's just a big marketing ploy to combat the saturation of wikipedia in the search results...

They don't need to go to that much trouble to cut Wikipedia from the search results.

[LeadMagnet]

Originally Posted by crazyleaf

They don't need to go to that much trouble to cut Wikipedia from the search results.

They do if they want to maintain their image.

[JamesW]

I do remember recent media coverage saying that wikipedia was to challenge Google because they felt it was wrong for one giant to control so much of the internet...

I tend to agree... Orkut is a disaster... OpenSocial will never take facebook out... not unless they pull it together and offer functionality in the specs which actually unite social networks ( I could be too skeptical )... and I doubt this venture will take out wikipedia... I understand evolution...

But Google has stopped innovating... now they are parasites using their weight to take out everyone else... Their ventures are direct attacks against current businesses... ( good businesses ) they have stopped innovating and pushing concepts which really matter... they are now officially an out of control money making machine harvesting all known resources on the internet...

This has been proven to me... however I am open minded and look forward to seeing how it evolves... I could always change my views tomorrow...

[Diablos]

I think Google get a lot of unfair stick for making money, yes they are doing a lot of lame things to increase the gross income but they are still innovating, think about the cross hardware mobile phone OS they are developing, they are leading semantic web search research and they are giving us more control and information with webmaster tools.

They really annoy me sometimes and the grip they have on the web is a little scary but it could be a hell of a lot worse.

[crazyleaf]

Originally Posted by JamesW

...But Google has stopped innovating... now they are parasites using their weight to take out everyone else... Their ventures are direct attacks against current businesses... ( good businesses ) they have stopped innovating and pushing concepts which really matter... they are now officially an out of control money making machine harvesting all known resources on the internet...

Totally agree.

[cerus]

Google Knol Launches; More Like Squidoo than Wikipedia


Google has just launched Knol to the public, dubbed by many as the search giant’s Wikipedia killer.

[Toon]

Do you know how many people are going to try and write spam posts about their wonderful site and get banned from google search, Gmail, webmaster tools, blogger, youtube etc.

It will be a joy to watch people actually attempt to spam google and wonder why their $2.80 from their adsense account is no longer theirs.

[CVW]

If Knol was owned by another company, it would be just like Squidoo or Hubpages and wouldn't bother me too much. I am willing to take my chances in search along with everyone else and use my content to get traffic.

The trouble is, by the time we have G results from Maps, Base, Books, Local and don't forget Adwords - the chances of a searcher even seeing my result let alone clicking on it are even smaller.

I am sure I have moaned on here that Google books has been Gobbling up my amazon affiliates traffic, now every idiot and spammer in the world can rehash my content and get it ranked better than mine.

I have used Squidoo to an SEO advantage but at the end of the day, the lenses take their place in SERPS legitimately. The thought of Google owning content that it then shows to the myopic masses is the thin end of the "free flow of information" wedge.