Knowledge is power, and two heads are better than one. That’s why collaborative knowledge has become the battle call of different websites aiming to teach other people about what they know. By writing what they know online, not only do they teach people on what they know, they also invite other experts in the field to add more or change some information that might be a little bit off the topic. In this information driven world, we all need to have our daily dose of information and become smarter and knowledgeable everyday. That’s why Wikipedia, Answers.com and DIY websites are very attractive since they provide us with up-to-date information compiled by experts.
Given the importance of such collaborative knowledge sharing, the leader of almost anything in the internet has even widened its horizon. According to the latest post of the Google’s official blog, different bloggers and leaders in the industry have been invited to try out their own collaborative knowledge website called “Knol” which they refer to as a unit of knowledge. When it was launched in private closed beta, different bloggers who have been invited gave their opinion about the latest offering of Google, and it looks promising. Wikipedia may be in big trouble because of this latest offer of Google as it works almost the same as Wikipedia.
Since it was just announced in Google’s official blog, it could take some time before we could have a glimpse of this technology. In my opinion, Google is really fast in developing this type of technology so it could be available for beta testing in the first quarter of 2008. But Google was able to provide us with a good screenshot of what do we have to expect from “Knol.” It looks like Wikipedia only with different tweaks. Google ads will be on the right site of the website and the author on top of the ads. This is something different when you compare it against Wikipedia. As Google said it in their blog, “The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors.” Using Knol, experts on a specific subject should be able to maintain their popularity on the subject. People who will come in looking for information will know who wrote on that, making the Knol more trusted compared to Wikipedia.
On the other hand, Google will not edit any of these articles. All information will be primarily given and edited by the author. In terms of who moderates who, we just have to wait on how those things will work when it is officially released.
Some see it as a way for Google to earn more money and take away the popularity of Wikipedia. By tapping into credible authors in a specific field, they might do something that Wikipedia cannot. We just have to wait till the next year and find out whether the buzz that started by Google is worthy enough to be followed. The year 2008 will be a great time for more and better knowledge for everyone.
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