There's a new kid on the online block named Knol and even this
early in the development stage, some people are already
predicting that it could bring about yet another significant
change to the way we share information on the Internet.

Knol is a new Web service being developed by Google that is
meant to serve as a virtual storehouse of knowledge on the
Internet. With content being contributed by various experts on
different topics, it will behave much in the same way that
Wikipedia does currently. In fact many industry experts have
made the suggestion that Knol is set to become a direct
competitor to Wikipedia and other similar types of web sites.

Google is of course the go to web site as far as search engines
go, being the most popular search engine web site today by far.
If Knol is as successful in drawing a widespread following as
the developers hope, it could bring about the Google's
transition from a search engine into a company that creates and
publishes Web content.

Some industry observers warn that one problem that could
potentially arise is that Google's objectivity in presenting
search results could be compromised.

Knol–the name of which is derived from the word "knowledge"–is
being developed to allow people to create Web pages on virtually
any topic. When completed, it will include several features that
will allow its users the ability to perform a number of tasks,
such as submitting comments, rating individual web pages and
suggesting changes.

We mentioned earlier in this article that Knol has been
compared to Wikipedia by many industry analysts. While there are
in fact many similarities between the two web services, the main
difference is that Wikipedia allows virtually anyone to edit an
entry while Knol only allows the author of each particular
"knol,"–which is what the individual pages in the service will
be called–to do so. This means that the same topics could have
many different authors with sometimes contrasting–or even
competing–points of view.

Google has stated that the main thrust of the Knol project was
to focus attention on authors who have sufficient expertise on
particular topics. As vice president for engineering at Google
Udi Manber wrote in the Google corporate blog recently, the
Internet has evolved largely without the benefit of a
standardized means to highlight the author's name on each web
article. He goes on to say that the company believes that
knowing who wrote a particular web article what will
considerably aid users make better use of the Internet and its
various content.

Manber also stated that another important goal of Knol was to
cover a wide range of topics, from the various sciences to
health concerns to history. Eventually they hope to have Knol
become the first stop for research on any topic. Today it is
Wikipedia that provides that function and its web pages show up
at the top of the results page of Google and many other search
engines more often than not.

Some in the industry have suggested that this latest move of
Google is driven by the unprecedented growth of web sites that
combine knowledge resources such as Wikepedia, and that Google
feels the need to have a strong presence in that particular
area.

Wikipedia is by no means the only web site that offers that
type of service. Many other companies have taken slightly
different approaches in functioning as knowledge repositories on
various topics on the Internet. These services include Squidoo,
Yahoo Answers, About.com and Mahalo.

In spite of the widespread popularity of these services–as well
as the existence of many free tools that allow experts and
regular people the means by which they can share their knowledge
online–Manber said that Google feels that it is still not easy
enough for the average user to do those things.

Interestingly, considering all the hype and excitement that is
currently surrounding the news of Knol's existence, Google has
refrained from discussing the project any further than these
initial details, and have even said that it is still an
experimental project at this time. This means that just like
many other Google tests that never saw the light of day, Knol
could end up never even being released publicly at all.

As for Wikipedia, site founder Jimmy Wales has downplayed his
site's comparison with Knol, saying that while Wikipedia's goal
is utmost objectivity in its content, with each individual
article being the sum total of the collective knowledge of its
various authors, Knol's model will likely result in highly
opinionated and possible even contradictory articles on even the
simplest of topics.

Another important distinction is that Wikipedia is a strictly
non profit web site that does not carry any type of advertising,
while Knol is a decidedly more commercial venture, with its
content authors earning revenue from any Google ads on their
site.


About The Author: Mikhail Tuknov offers search engine
optimization marketing services http://www.infatex.com