Wikipedia finds a competition in Google’s newly launched Knol. BY going public on Wednesday, Google hopes that Knol “will fill the gaps on what we have on the web today” as stated by Knol’s product manager Cedric DuPont. The word Knol is a shortened term for “a unit of knowledge.” Knol is similar yet different with the ever popular Wikipedia. They are similar in such a way that anyone can write an article about almost any topic under the sun.
However, in Wikipedia the author will remain anonymous and his content can be edited by anyone. With Knol on the other hand, the author will write content under his own byline and anyone wishing to edit it has to gain permission from the owner of the article. One of Knol’s primary objectives is to preserve authorship for the content to be more reliable. The contents written on Knol will be ranked according to reviews, ratings, and how often people browse it. In shorter term I guess that means relevance and popularity.
One problem with wiki is that many critics attack new articles that they disagree with. For example an article I wrote on ocean dumping of trash was attacked. Antienvironmentalists started saying my article was not professional enough for wiki and blasting my article on the problem of plastics in the ocean.