Knol is a project planned by Google for user-generated articles on topics ranging from "scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions." It was announced on December 13, 2007. Knol pages are "meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read", according to Udi Manber, a Vice President of Engineering at Google. The term knol, coined by Google to mean a "unit of knowledge", refers to both the project and an article in the project. The site has been seen by many as Google's attempt to compete with Wikipedia.
The site is currently in private beta, and requests to create "knols" are by invitation only.
Each knol article will be written by a single author, and other users can edit it only with permission from the author.Readers may rate or comment on the articles. There can also be multiple articles for the same topic, each written by a different author. Google "[believes] that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content."Manber said that Google hopes "knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line" and that the authors will be able to decide whether advertisements will appear on their knols, and that if there are ads, a "substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads" will be given to authors. While it is not yet known if authors are allowed to run ads from companies other than Google, according to Sullivan, Manber said it is a possibility. Manber also writes that "Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors."
Since its announcement in December 2007, there has been speculation on Google's motives and its position as a producer of content rather than as an organizer. The Guardian's Jack Schofield argued that "Knol represents an attack on the media industry in general."
Knol has been described both as a rival to encyclopedia sites such as Wikipedia, Scholarpedia and About.com and as a complement to Wikipedia.The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, welcomed the Google knol initiative saying that "The more good free content, the better for the world." While Wikipedia articles are written collectively under a "neutral point of view" policy, knol will highlight personal expertise by emphasizing authorship and, like articles provided in Everything2 and Helium.com, knols will contain the personal opinions of the author.
Because of knol's format, some have said knol is more like About.com than Wikipedia. According to Wolfgang Hansson, a writer at DailyTech, knol may have been planned for About.com originally when it was up for acquisition. Hansson reported that several sources close to the sale said Google was planning to acquire About.com, but the executives at About.com learned Google was planning to move from About.com's model to a wiki-style model. That would have meant layoffs for all 500 or so "Guides" at About.com.
Some have debated whether Google search results can remain neutral because of possible conflict of interest. According to Danny Sullivan, an editor of Search Engine Land, "Google’s goal of making Knol pages easy to find on search engines could conflict with its need to remain unbiased." Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, raised similar concerns: "At the end of the day, there's a fundamental conflict between the business Google is in and its social goals. What you're seeing here, slowly, is Google embracing an advertising-driven model, in which money will have a greater impact on what people have ready access to." As a response to such concerns it has been pointed out that Google already hosts large amounts of content in sites like YouTube, Blogger and Google Groups and that there is no significant difference in this case. Nicholas Carr, a frequent technology commentator, dismissed predictions of Google manipulating results saying that Google is hoping that the most popular knol pages will rise naturally through the search results, challenging Wikipedia and providing another area of content that can carry Google ads.
A different concern was raised by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia: That the profit incentive could turn Google's collection of knols into a magnet for pages about highly commercial subjects instead of more academic topics.
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At first glance, Manber’s title for the announcement—"Encouraging people to contribute knowledge"—would seem to fit with the "wisdom of the crowd" strategy behind Wikipedia and other user-based services. However, the "Insomnia" illustration of the concept behind Knol is clearly author-centric. It even carries a picture of the author. A knol does allow contributions from readers, but they are clearly labeled and sidebarred. Rather than encourage multiple contributors to evolve a complete article in virtual anonymity as Wikipedia does (for an excellent example of this process, see Wikipedia’s own coverage of Knol at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Knol), the Knol project encourages readers to write their own articles. Multiple authors may write an article, but it must be an organized collaboration, perhaps one with a group photo of the smiling authors. [Note: On Monday, Jan. 7, Wikia, Inc. (www.wikia.com) publicly launched its own Wikia search service (http://search.wikia.com/wiki/Search_Wikia) that taps into a community of experts to rank search results and filter content. The cover story by Woody Evans for Searcher magazine’s January issue—"Embryonic Web 3.0: Universal Search, Wikia, and the Birth of User-Generated Search"—describes the new effort. —Ed.]
Overall, the tool seems designed to help people with little knowledge of how to create a website for their work—and even less interest in learning—to follow simple but attractive templates. Manber states, "The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors … We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content. At the heart, a knol is just a web page … It is well-organized, nicely presented, and has a distinct look and feel, but it is still just a web page. Google will provide easy-to-use tools for writing, editing, and so on, and it will provide free hosting of the content. Writers only need to write; we’ll do the rest."
At present, Knol participation is by invitation only, and it focuses on providing solid instructional pieces. A Google representative indicated that it might be months before the company opens it up or makes an official public announcement. For this first round of knol development, Manber wants a wide range of knols on any and every topic that will "be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read." And there we can see the competition issue with Wikipedia. But Manber adds that all the editing and control, including the option to insert ads, will rest with the authors. Rather than one authoritative article growing out of multiple contributions, however, and despite the option for readers to submit comments, questions, edits, and additional content such as links and references, as well as ratings and reviews, Manber expects, "For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing." He admits that once knol participation becomes "completely open … we cannot expect that all of them will be of high quality." However, he expects that Google will rise to the challenge of ranking knols appropriately within Google search results. Gallant as always, Google will open all the knol content to any other search engine. That way other search engines can send users off to read knols on Google.
Steve Arnold (www.arnoldit.com), a "Pro Bowl Google Watcher" and author of Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator (Infonortics ebook, October 2007), looks on Knol as just another round in Google’s march toward disrupting a variety of marketplaces with its superior technology and massive user base. In an interview with Paula J. Hane published in the January 2008 issue of Information Today (www.infotoday.com/IT/jan08/Hane.shtml), Arnold identified six potential target markets for Google disruptions. One of them was publishing. Arnold stated that "the company’s activity in publishing-related research has been underway continually since 2001," with an intensive ramp-up throughout 2007.
When I spoke with Arnold, he commented that Knol was just the tip of the iceberg for publishing. "It’s just a logical evolution of what Google is up to." He did not consider Wikipedia as a prime target. Instead, he thought that Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia might just get caught in the blast of Google’s typical nuclear explosion. The Wikipedia issue is just a distraction, a misdirection, according to Arnold. He considered Knol just an application in "Google’s great big universe." "It makes sense to start there, but that’s not where it will stop. Google will start at a point that gets traffic and, if it catches on, it can expand into other things, such as scholarly publishing and book publishing."
Arnold also predicted that Knol might work well with Google Base (http://base.google.com). Google Base came out late in 2005, touted as a competitor to eBay. It allows people to post online and offline information for sale or distribution and to assign attributes to make them more searchable. One category mentioned on the homepage for Google Base even identifies "reference articles," though most of the content retrieved under that category seems to be prior art patent searches. Google Base has not proved to be an outstanding success, but it could just be a matter of time and content. Arnold thinks that Google Base could solve the other side of the publishing process, namely how to sell and distribute content in bulk. "Put them together [Knol and Google Base] and you have a womb-to-tomb publishing platform," said Arnold.Your Ad |
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