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The entire inquisitive world and its ever-ignorant monkey might be well versed with the wealth of information offered up by online oracle Wikipedia, but search monster Google is looking to plug Wikipedia’s ‘occasional inaccuracies’ by launching Knol, a somewhat oddly named encyclopaedic alternative.
Google launches online information portal Knol. Image: Google.
Officially revealed this Wednesday, one of Knol’s major differentiating aspects when placed alongside Wikipedia is that its expert subject contributors are held accountable for any mistakes they make thanks to Knol enforcing a byline rule for each of its articles.
By comparison, Wikipedia functions by allowing its contributors to provide content from beneath the umbrella of anonymity.
“We are deeply convinced that authorship -- knowing who wrote what -- helps readers trust the content,” commented Cedric DuPont, product manager for Knol, in a Reuters report.
The official Google Blog reinforces DuPont’s statement, offering that Knol’s key principle lies with its authorship: “Every knol [page] will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.”
Interestingly, Knol hopes to attract its knowledgeable expert contributors with the lure of monetary gain. Specifically, Google will give Knol’s authors a share of any income gathered by AdSense adverts that are hosted through their specific article pages.
Another Knol feature that differs from Wikipedia is that Google’s offering does not edit or endorse its information and visitors will not be permitted to edit or contribute to specific knol pages without first securing the permission of its author or authors.
Any objectionable content found on Knol can be reported to Google, while information-based inaccuracies noted by readers can be submitted to knol authors via a feature called “moderated collaboration”.
While readers can freely submit their corrections and suggestions, Knol’s authors will retain control over their content at all times with regard to accepting, rejecting, or modifying articles before they are posted for public consumption.
Of course, despite the power associated with Google’s considerable market presence, Wikipedia holds a considerable lead in the information stakes considering that the site has grown to include 7 million articles spread across 200 languages since it launched in 2001.
Commenting on the sizeable traction gap between the two information outlets, DuPont intimated that Knol isn’t necessarily being positioned as a direct competitor to Wikipedia but rather as a source of authoritative content that can be used in conjunction with its article-rich counterpart.
The public launch of Knol, which is a title derived from the word ‘knowledge’, follows on from an initial limited test phase implemented by Google back in December of 2007.
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