This is has to be the biggest announcement coming from Google at the end of this year. Google is planning to take on Wikipedia with their own project titled “Knol” which apparently stands for Units of Knowledge.. While the title doesn’t really say much about the project, but they are definitely trying to create a more accountable version of Wikipedia, that will be monetized and will also also feature in Google Search Results, giving Wikipedia a run for its money.
Google really is playing smart here, by taking on the weaknesses of Wikipedia and building upon its strengths. Wikipedia’s biggest weakness to date has been the ability for anyone to edit it at any time. Say if I’d go about editing a Wikipedia entry saying that Mac OSX has had the most amount of Virus Attacks on it since a decade, the whole world would read it before someone else would come and edit it. Atleast with Knol, If I wrote something of that kind my reputation would be lost, and I stand to loose some money too, because Google plans to share revenue with Authors.
Another big weakness that Wikipedia has, is its sole dependence on Google for its traffic. What If Google decided to put Knol Pages above Wikipedia in the search results, the traffic of Wikipedia would take a nosedive. I’m not saying that Google would do this, but it really is a possibility.
Well Google would take advantage of its vast community, by allowing them to comment on pages and giving it ratings. Think of Knol that combines the best of Wikipedia, Digg, Blogs, Squidoo and other media that has really changed the way we find information on the Internet.
The Question if Wikipedia would survive or not is a different question, but some competition is always good. Lets see what Jimmy Wales has to say about this.
View Google's Announcement of the Knol Project here.
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