July 24, 2008
Knols
Knol is open to everyone, Google Blog (Jul 23)
Wikipedia watch out. Google's wiki-like Knol is open for business.
From the posting: "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."
Authors have names and credentials; they can moderate edits and suggestions, and collaborate with other authors; they can even control the licensing of content. Readers can comment, rate, and review a knol.
Most of the knols seem to be health related at present. There is no good way to browse by topic, and the collection is too small to make keyword search worthwhile. Knols seem to have a style sheet that establishes basic components such as a table of contents to the sections, but some knols look a lot better and are much easier to read than others.
The comments on an article can sometimes be the best part. These might be recommendations for improvement, new resources, additional information. Can see this in the know on poison ivy.
Knols have promise. The authorship and credentials are a definite advantage over Wikipedia's systems. But how long will it take Google Knol to have the critical mass of a Wikipedia?
Also - Google opens reference tool ‘Knol' to public by MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP via Globe and Mail (Jul 23)
There is money involved - "The contributing author and Google will share any revenue generated from the ads, which are supposed to be related to the topic covered in the Knol.
The advertising option could encourage people to write more entries about commercial subjects than the more academic topics covered in traditional encyclopedias."
Posted by Gwen at July 24, 2008 12:17 PM