If everywhere, everyone has been flooded with this image showing an article on INSOMNIA, it is so because KNOL is out for the public now. KNOL is Google’s knowledge base ( a way to tackle Wikipedia) of articles written by people ranging from specialised ones to bloggers to anyone stung by the writer’s bug. As if your blogger/wordpress account wasn’t enough. Google wants to centralise it all. But yeah, no one here would be interested a status update of you at 2 am. Articles here aren’t anonymous. There are personally written posts (quite long ones) on topics by people who are specialized enough to know the ins and outs.
Firstly, do NOT go to Knol.com. That is a Dutch website offering Steam machines. The business for them is so gonna break through the roof. At least they should include Adsense!! Anyway coming back, the official website of Knol is http://knol.google.com. And the homepage has a few past articles featured written by authors who are Neurologists, Proffessors at renowned Universities, and highly qualified physicians. Most of the written posts featured on the homepage are on health topics viz. Heart Diseases, Cancer, Fighting Obesity etc. But there are other topics as well. As this one, written by a certain Chewy (Geeky Geekington) who has written a post on Devil May Cry 4. And from his anonymous profile, (here known as biography of the author) we still don’t know much about Mr.Chewy. So that brings us what Knol is all about. I shall point it out in the points below.
- It’s a repository where many specialised/verified(by Google) authors contribute their knowledge on specialised topics.
- Topics contain author’s links and hence an author’s profile can be tracked. Unlike wiki, which is a general page and a single page can be updated by multiple authors, and there is no tracking back of authors.
- An article can be rated.
- Just too many health articles on homepage. A bit scary.
- Collaboration of author’s work here.
- No editing of Knols. It is considered as a unit of knowledge, so a single topic can have multiple Knols.
Compared to Wiki’s database, Knol has a long long way to go. And I personally believe that Knol would NEVER be able to compete against Wiki. Knol is more like a centralised blogger platform (may be yet another). How much will it be accepted as a knowledge repository or an encyclopedia is a bit questionable. Yes, there will be some articles who will be read more , just because of the fact that these are being written by specialists and not by uncle_benny_543 from Zoolanderland.But having said that, compared to what Wiki offers, and the amount of pages that it has now, in the number of languages in which it offers its services, ahem ahem!!! Let’s talk about something else.
Of course by now, the entire blogosphere is going gaga over another Google service. I have a few links myself which I think should be read if you felt my post on Knol didn’t quench your thirst enough.
Google Launches Knol for All (Just Don’t Call It a Wikipedia Killer)
Google Knol Launches; More Like Squidoo than Wikipedia
Screw Facebook, I’m learning how to unclog toilets from Knol (Google’s “Wikipedia”)
Google unveils Knol, its accountable take on Wikipedia — with ads
Google launches Knol Beta to all !
Google’s Knol Launches: Like Wikipedia, With Moderation
Share Your Expertise in Google’s Knol
Knol, Google’s Version of Wikipedia, Goes Public
Google Launches Knol, The Monetizable Wikipedia
Google Launches Wikipedia Killer “Knol”
--> Author: Sujoy
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