New Google Project "Knol" to challenge Wikipedia

[Brendan]

Google Knol: A Step Too Far?

Old news, but it was new to me. Interesting to see if Google can dethrone the widely known Wiki encylopedia.

I myself find it unnecessary as wikipedia serves its purpose perfectly, and with Knol pages possible including revenues/ads, I don't see it stealing the flame from wikipedia, and flopping.

but this is google. they are THE technological/internet innovators of the decade. it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

[alexmitton]

I dont think they will be more popular than Wikipedia, Wikipedia owns!

[Akiba]

Personally I like to see Google as a company expand, I use wikipedia a lot in use with and general knowledge.

It would take a lot for me to switch from the Wiki it all depends on the user-ability of the site. If Knol is easier to use and provides better information.

Both of the sites will be used it will be hard to choose which is better.

[kennh]

I won't be using this cause people get to make money off of it by putting advertising.

[JK123]

Why shouldn’t people earn a little ad revenue for sharing their knowledge. Its not like an article writes itself!

The problem with wiki (which btw I think is ace and use a lot) is that you have no idea how reliable the information is. With Knol you can rate the reliability of the information based on who the author is. For example if Stephen Hawking writes an article on singularities you can be pretty damn certain that it is 100% accurate and is wholly authoritative. If somebody’s 9 year old did it you could comfortably dismiss it as likely to be factually incorrect.

I see Knol as an excellent idea and one which will develop into a very useful and successful venture both for google, for contibutors and for the general public. I will be contributing and will welcome the trickle of ad revenue generated by my content.