What's a "knol" you ask? (Wait, was that you or the voices...) A knol is a word invented by Google to represent a unit of knowledge. We needed this word, you know, because we haven't yet fulfilled our "irritating Web 2.0 buzzwords" quota.
Knol, currently in a testing phase for invited knollers (I can make words up, too), is a free tool, with which knol-it-alls (thank you, I'll be here all night!) can post "authoritative articles" on stuff they know about (e.g., bananas, polar bears, poisonous shamrocks, gnarled toes, cat cataracts, etc.). Using community tools, readers can then rate articles, post comments, and submit additional content.
While this sounds dangerously similar to every university's most loathed online reference, Wikipedia, there are a few notable differences. Wikipedia's platform allows for users to edit content, but knols would only be editable by each author. In turn, while Wikipedia hosts one page per topic, Knol would allow authors to post competing pages on the same topic.
Additionally, and perhaps more glaringly hairy, unlike Wikipedia, the Knol service would have a commercial side to it. According to the Google blog: "At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads."
In last week's editor's blog, "Does the Web Owe You Money?," we discussed the prospect of Web users raking in cash for their content contributions. While the general consensus on our in-story poll was that Web users should not get paid for their crappity crap load of user-generated crap, Google seems to think otherwise.
According to Google, the driving idea behind this project is to highlight authors who, unlike book authors, get lost in the Waves on the World Wide Web. Thus, terming them "authors" (Author! Author!) rather than low-life content generators, makes them worthy of compensation. Brava!
Thanks for the money, G, but this eenie meenie minor detail sort of obscures the big picture for me: "Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content." Bless me! So, then, what Google is really doing is beating the legitimacy out of a once-respectable word like "author" and awarding the title to anyone with an opposable thumb or two and something to say about the War of 1812.
By promoting regular online schmoes to "author" and tossing them "substantial revenue share," we're on our way to defining the next stage of the Web by severely debased standards and a deluge of insufficient information. However, if this is really where we're headed (to the land of commendable mediocrity), sites like Wikipedia may need to step up their compensation game in order to stay afloat.
I think it's funny that the link Nicole has to "knol" on the Google blog ends with, ostensibly, an example called "Insomnia." Clearly, it took an insomniac to think, "Okay, we've got calories, we have degrees, we have dollars and the Euro, but we don't have units of knowledge."
And then, goodness, who really types a line like:
Once testing is completed, participation in knols will be completely open
Is there someone who thinks knols is cool? I think knols had to have been created by someone who thought Magic was just too simple of a table game. Or, maybe by someone planning on attending many holiday parties (celebrating, I guess, the first kno-l) and needing a topic of differentiation ("What have you been doing lately?" "I've been devoting considerable research to knols, actually.....).
Someone, somewhere, probably will determine that this post only contains 7 knols, which, I have to assume, would be bad. In the meantime, I hope all you Google topic posters here have a great holiday week.
"Does this really make the posts better or is 'knol' just the expansion of the Google Empire? "
Can I answer "Both?"
Probably not relevant anyway because Wikipedia has such a vast array of content and I just don't see Google catching up. Like they didn't catch up to YouTube with their Google Video service (before they bought YouTube). And like they haven't caught up to Microsoft with their Google Docs nonsense.
The emerging theme seems to be that Google just does an awful lot of anything it feels like these days. I guess they have the budget for it. What do they do WELL, though? Still just hunt and click searchy stuff.... all very Web 1.0 and dull. And when you have the majority of the market you are vulnerable.
In the first place, Google's idea of creating their way to Encouraging people to contribute knowledge looks like a 1:1 copy. But after reading their value proposition it is obvious that their forum will be different. Are you trusting comments, reports and posts on Wikipedia one hundred percent? Are you using Wikipedia as a quote in your paper thesis? And if so, might it be the case that your 5 years old son changed the article because he thought he needs to "contribute knowledge" ?
Goggle says that the goal of knol is to cover all topics from "science" to "how-to-fix-it". Absolutely comparable to the content, that is already posted and available on Wikipedia. The only difference is that people will not be able to post articles anonymous. We will be able to track the authors.
Here the question:
Does this really make the posts better or is 'knol' just the expansion of the Google Empire?
I've been following the debate ever since Googl launched their Knol project and i must confess that the wide range of views has make the debate a very thrilling one. Whilst some are viewing Knol as a ploy by Google to kill wikipedia and mahalo, others are simply rebuffing it as a money venture. Still others are satisfied with Google's explanation that they simply want to encourage people to contribute knowledge.
As we've been discussing about the future of the internet, it's now crystal clear than ever that the internet is evolving and project like Knol would keep raising the bar in this polarized cyberworld.
Personally, i don't see Knol setting the cyber world on fire. Firstly by trying to create content, isee it as a ploy by Google to control the contents users see on line and i'm still to be convince how good they are at content creation and publishing as they are in their core business of search and advertising. Secondly, i also don't see the benefits which Knol will offer than what we have now from personal blogs and message forms, vertical search engines and wikipedia. Thirdly, with so many Knols on a given topic, we can be overwhelmed with alternative views that could be more annoying than anything else. Even with the promise of rating these Knols, it remains to be seen how these ratings will reflect the value of the information.
As you've righlty pointed out, it seems Knol is taking us to a new direction and it;s time for the others to step up to this new level because when a company like Googl speaks, it's prudent on your part to listen and get ready for whatever they may throw at you.
Google said that the main objective behind the knol is to "find a way to help people share their knowledge". The intent is good, but many will see this idea as a way for Google to breaden their "current advertising kingdom" by reinventing Wikipedia
It is obvious that when Knol will gain populariry any search with google engine will primarily be directed to Knol contents and as you said, site such as wikipedia.org and about.com/ will have to buckle down if they want to remain competive.
The evolutionary biologist and cantankerous atheist Richard Dawkins coined the term "meme" about 30 years ago, defined as a unit of cultural information and, therefore, a building block of social evolution. It hasn't really caught on in the wider community, but "knol" may be ugly enough and pointless enough to do so. And besides, it's on Google.
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