Saturday, May 30, 2009

Will Google's Knol replace Wikipedia?


Currently Wikipedia is the most popularly used free online encyclopedia which is collaboratively created by many people.

Google is planning to release a product/tool similar to wikipedia. It is named as knol which stands for a unit of knowledge.

It seems Beta testing is going on for knol.

We know that currently Google is giving priority for Wikipedia articles when showing Search Results.

Many people are expecting that knol will replace wikipedia in future.

Google uses the word "knol" as the name of the project and as an instance of an article interchangeably.

Even when it is similar to wikipedia it is differing from wikipedia in some manners.

For example, in Wikipedia we don't know the Author of the article. But Google takes strict actions to show the Author of the knol articles. I heard that even Google is expecting Credit Card verification to verify the name of the author.

Knol is having an option to specify the category of the article.

It seems it will maintain a hierarchy of the categories in a tree structure automatically.

Knol is allowing the user to give Rating for articles.

Google allows to have multiple articles for the same topic. And, it is allowing the users to put adSense advertisements in their articles. So the people will show interest to create their own articles instead of editing articles created by other users. So the quality of articles may not be improved.

But the goolge's blog is saying that Competition of ideas is a good thing.

Google allows the authors to put Google Analytic in knol for knowing the traffic details.

You can see a Sample knol explaining QTP which is created by us.


Below youtube video will explain step by step procedure for creating knol.



Different people are having different opinion about knol. You can see the discussion about the knol here.

A visitor of http://sphinn.com has given below comment for this article.



As one of the top-ranked writers at Knol, and as a member of a Knol writing team dealing with Knol metrics and analytics, I do not agree with the "replace wikipedia" thrust of this post. Knol is destined to reside alongside Wikipedia as a high ranking search engine result for those seeking topical information. Knol has a long way to go, of course.

Wikipedia endeavors to be a trusted classic encylopedia. Knol endeavors to be a trusted pragmatic knowledge bank. Wikipedia tells us what something is; Knol tells us how to deal with it in everyday life. Wikipedia will never instruct how to fix stripped screw holes with toothpicks. Knol basks in such information.

At launch, Knol offered many well-done academic Knols on medical conditions, authored by doctors at research and teaching hospitals like UCSF and Tufts School of Dentistry. Most of these are peer-review journal worthy. This threw evaluation off. These authors wrote for their peers with visible by-lines, not for the hoi polloi. You need another Knol just to explain the medical language in most of these. However, they form a foundation of quality work.

In the 10 months since launch, Knol has accumulated 250K articles, most of them in the pragmatic space and far too many of them in the junk space. And, Google continues to push the high academic content on the landing page as if to say "we want to be another Wikipedia." Those of us who have established a reputation really think that Knol is trying to tell the junk writers to go away. If you are not an authority or expert on your topic, don't write a Knol. We think this is the real message. We hope this is the real message. Otherwise, Knol is just Web MD with an audience of peers, not patients.

My activity on Knol -- which often includes robust discussions in the comments area -- can be accessed here. In addition to ongoing metrics analysis that points to ways forward, my team has taken down one of the Internet's biggest plagiarizers (click here) and driven blatant advertising off the platform (click here). Our team is also busy helping other writers achieve high rank through quality work, and we mentor writers every day through Knol comments.

Finally, at Knol, your by-line is front and center and you control your license, even your collaborators and commenters. Knol is what you will make of it, and that's a much richer, more useful place than Wikipedia. What are you waiting for? Write a Knol!




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