Google's answer to Wikipedia goes live

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 24 July 2008 13:31

Business IT - Networking

It's taken over six months for the wraps to come off, but Knol - Google's answer to Wikipedia - has gone live. Are you game to put your name where your mouth - er, keyboard - is?

That's perhaps the biggest difference between Knol and Wikipedia: Knol's aim is that each knol (article) should be authoritative from the word go.

Where Wikipedia is a creation of the crowd that (hopefully) converges on the truth, the author(s) of each individual knol are expected to put their reputations on the line.

To that end, authors' names are published, in most cases complete with biographical information that shows why they should be trusted on that topic.

This approach also means that authors can bring particular perspectives and tones to their knol, unlike the way Wikipedia strives for neutral language. Since Knol allows for multiple knols on any particular subject, this needn't be a bad thing. Two different authors can present the same facts in different ways that make the information accessible to different audiences.

But it isn't that public participation isn't welcome, indeed it is encouraged. But it's up to the author or authors to decide whether to accept, reject or modify each suggested edit before it appears in the knol.

Knol also provides mechanisms for reviewing, rating and commenting on articles.

What else is different about Knol? Please read on.