[WikiEN-l] Google Knol: Move over Wikipedia?

[Utkarshraj Atmaram]

"A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone
who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read."

<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/encouraging-people-to-contribute.html>

The project is not collaborative like Wikipedia, but for many topics,
there will be competing knols on the same subject. The goal is to
cover all topics, from encyclopedic topics to how-to-fix-it
instructions. The control over the article will remain with the
author, who can also choose to display ads and get a substantial
revenue share. Most probably, the license won't be a free one, but
"Google will not ask for any exclusivity on any of this content and
will make that content available to any other search engine."

It's too early to say, but the success of Knol may spell extinction
for projects like Citizendium: most "experts" would prefer to retain
sole authorship of their articles and get paid for it.

And of course, it may spell doom for Wikipedia as well. Knol will
certainly provide a more authoritative, more reliable source of
knowledge than Wikipedia:
<http://www.google.com/images/blogs/knol_lg.png>

-- 
Utkarshraj Atmaram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Utcursch