Knol is an abbreviation of Knowledge, which is precisely the idea of the new service, that people with great knowledge on a specific topic share information with others.
“The Internet is huge, but there are multiple sources that are not yet available. Knol allows people to share their knowledge and receive recognition for their contributions. In the same way that the name of a writer is provided on the cover of a book, the author’s name from a Knol also appears on the page, together with possible links to other articles by him. In a Knol, the author can incorporate references include links to related information and interact with readers. Readers, meanwhile, can comment, assigning grades and publish criticism, “writes Juergen Galler, director of product Google search.
Although Knol is an initiative of Google, it is difficult not to conjure Wikipedia.
However, one of the differences between Wikipedia and Knol is that the authors of articles published in Knol can determine on their own terms content others can modify or add. The article in question can also be blocked, making it impossible to edit it.
Google also offers to share advertising revenue with the author of the article. Similarly, the author can decide under what type of license article will be published.
Initially, Google will be difficult to achieve the volume of material published by Wikipedia, whose English edition reaches 2.5 million articles.
