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Google’s youngest child: Knol July 27, 2008

Wikis are everywhere. It seems that there are not any topics that have not been covered by at least one wiki. And the grand daddy of all wikis, Wikipedia, has come to face a new nemesis: Google Knol. I guess people at Google were sort of pissed to see that a Wikipedia article would always be in the top 5 of most Google search results, so they set out to make their own. Google has already created some turmoil with their Second Life rival, Google Lively, but I think most people did not see this one coming.

Although a large number of people have already expressed their negative views on Knol, it is important to note that so far, whatever Google has touched, such as Google Scholar, Google Documents, Gmail, not to mention their search engine, has become a leader in its own league. So, I think we should just wait out this storm, and pray it does not turn into another format war of some kind. This Wikipedia remake might actually turn into something very useful.

Further reading:

• Google Knol: Learn more
• Google Knol vs. Wikipedia

– Andras