Knol Announced - Wiki Stock Down
Updated: Official Google Blog: Knol is open to everyone
On December 13th Google announced they are working on their own encyclopedia. Wall Street Reaction was fast - Wiki stock down by 8.7%.
Sorry for kiding, I am sure you know that the second sentence is a nonsense. But the first sentence is true and I am sure it is going to influence Wiki.
Why another “pedia”?
Wikipedia pages rank for an incredible amount of competitive keywords. There is no AdSense on Wiki pages, Wiki is not willing to cooperate with Google. Do you still ask why? It is not the right question. You should ask:
Can you resist her?
At this moment it seems that she is younger, she might be your own and she even can give you some money. She may look like this:
She is pretty, isn’t she? By “she” I don’t mean Rachel Manber but the new “pedia” herself. Why I think she is pretty?
1) Look at the picture of the author. Google says:
The key idea behind the knol project is to highlight authors.
Anyone can change the text you created in Wiki. Do you like it? Are you motivated to publish a good content there? There is plenty of people who are. But what if there is another “pedia” where you are not an anonymous author but THE AUTHOR? What if nobody can change your content without your permission? Can you resist her?
2) Look at the AdSense block and imagine it is yours:
At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.
Can you resist her?
3) Search for your most profitable phrase on Google.com and imagine there is “Knol” link on the top of the first page.
The link goes to the Knol you created and it contains not only your sweet photograph but even sweeter links to your projects.
Can you resist her?
Her name
It has not been announced yet but I would speculate on something like Googlepedia, GoogleKnol or Google Knol. Googlepedia sounds sweet. Google Troll Knol sounds a little ugly to me. Let’s hear Udi Manber (Vice President of Engineering in Google):
Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling knol, which stands for a unit of knowledge.
The term Knol is an abbreviation of knowledge and in our context it has two meanings. The first one is a unit of knowledge and in reality it means just webpage or part of webpage. The second meaning is a free tool, for anyone who wants to create a page on any topic.
Simply said - the authors will use the Knol to create knols.
So, can you resist her?
If the most of you say yes, Wiki is saved and Google is wrong (again).
If the most of you say no, Google wins (again) and Wiki stock goes down.
In the meantime I am the person who tracks the Google Knol closely for you and who delivers fresh information to you over RSS or email.
