Google aims at Wikipedia with Knol

Google has fired its biggest salvo yet at Wikipedia by unveiling a new, expert-compiled encyclopaedia that anyone who visits can edit – well, sort of.



Unlike Wikipedia, which offers anonymous information on topics that its readers can change, Google Knol lets users contribute to entries but only if their published authors have agreed.



Through such "moderated collaboration" of reader suggesting amends to the author, who is typically an expert on the entered topic, Google can claim Knol offers "authoritative articles."



In the past, Wikipedia has come under fire from some quarters, including PR firms, academics and government, for offering false information bordering on the libellous.



With Knol, however, it will be up to the expert who first contributed the entry - their name will appear at the bottom, to "accept, reject or modify" the reader's amend before it is visible.



On the one hand, then, Knol can be seen leveraging the wisdom of crowds, as users can also post comments or rate articles, while on the other, authors can retain control of their content.



This will allow "multiple knolls" on the same subject, or a group of authors on one knoll, so the first person to be published on .Net, for example, might not end up as the only author acknowledged.



"The key principle behind Knol is authorship," Google's Cedric Dupont, a product manager and Michael McNally, a software engineer, wrote on the company's blog.



"Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion.



"This [moderated collaboration] allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!"



To encourage experts to submit articles on their specialisms, Google said each can choose if they want their knol to include an advert, which will give them a small revenue share from its total proceeds.