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AUSTIN, Texas - Mountain View, California-based search leader Google has announced a new user-generated  Web encyclopedia project dubbed "Knol," that will rival the most popular online reference work Wikipedia. Google vice president of engineering Udi Manber wrote on the company's official blog that the project, which has been tested over the past week by a select group of invited guests, will soon allow anyone with "useful knowledge" to write entries, which Google calls "knols," about all manner of topics and to have them hosted at no cost on the project Web site. Unlike Wikipedia, authors using Know will all have their name associated with the material they write, and other authors will not be able to edit their writing, a move Manber says will help increase quality content, as authors "will put their reputation on the line." How Knol Works Google has increasingly featured links to Wikipedia entries in its search engine results pages (or SERPs, a term coined by Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld), however a similar Google endeavor called Google Scholar has not made the kind of inroads the company would like to see, leading to the Knol project announced yesterday, which aims to make it easier for people to share their knowledge online in a "well organized" and "easily discoverable" way. That goal stems in part from a challenge posed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to Manber. Knol, which Google says is a single unit of knowledge, hopes to encourage people who "know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it," Manber wrote. The project will provide tools for writing and editing, and Google hopes this will create an online user-generated encyclopedia where "writers only need to write; we'll do the rest," according to Manber. Google appears to want Knol entries to be both suitable for casual readers who are researching a subject matter for the first time and "authoritative" enough for those seeking in-depth information, a balance that might be difficult to obtain in a system that plans to allow anyone to write entries. "A Knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read," according to Manber. Google Launches Wikipedia-like "Knol" Web Encyclopedia Google claims that it will not hold any editorial powers within Knol and that it will not endorse particular  entries posted once the system is rolled out to the public. "All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors," Manber wrote of the project, which will likely see numerous entries about the same topic by various authors, with Google's search engine deciding which are the most relevant to what a person is searching for. "Competition is a good thing," Manber wrote of Knol's system of competing entries, which takes a different approach than rival Wikipedia, where anyone may author or edit an entry. Wikipedia has encountered difficulties due to its open nature including the ability to make entries and edits anonymously, with several high profile cases involving either malicious or prankish postings of incorrect information. With Knol Google will offer a number of social networking type features, allowing people to both rate and comment on any entry in the encyclopedia, and in another departure from Wikipedia, it will allow authors the option to include advertisements and collect a "substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads," according to Manber's statement. Wikipedia does not allow advertisements. Citing Sources Knol will allow authors to link to other online material when citing sources for an entry, and Google plans to make the information on the site available to other search engines. "We do not want to build a walled garden of content; we want to disseminate it as widely as possible," Google said. This comes as Wikipedia continues to gain popularity, as witnessed by the 107 million visitors in had in October, making it the eighth most visited Web brand according to analysis firm Nielsen Online. While Google remains the most popular Web site, with more than 260 million users, its Google Scholar program saw only 4.5 million users during October, making it the fifteenth most visited, and most likely prompting Google to push the new Knol project. Early Reactions Mixed Early reaction to the news of Knol has been mixed among members of the popular online discussion forums operated by WebmasterWorld, a community of mostly technically savvy webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) professionals. Claiming that Knol is any sort of breakthrough for easily sharing knowledge online doesn't ring true to one WebmasterWorld user using the handle "bostongio," who points out that blogs perform that function already. Another user calling themselves "jtara" sees potential misuse of the system by Web site owners writing entries simply to gain additional visitors and the advertising revenue that often accompany them to their sites. Others wonder why Google hasn't purchased Wikipedia outright rather than developing their own user-generated content encyclopedia system. Wikipedia has a seven year head start as a provider of user-generated online encyclopedia content, and claims to have more than eight million entries in 253 languages, however Google appears ready to make a serious challenge to its older rival by offering Knol in the ever more encompassing and familiar to many Google environment. Related Links:
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9:49 pm on Dec. 14, 2007 (utc 0)
