Washington State University World Class. Face to Face. Campuses WSU Home WSU Search my WSU

Google Knol vs. Wikipedia

From wsuwiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

What is Google Knol?

Almost everyone has heard of and is familiar with Wikipedia (for those who are not, see the Wikipedia Wiki for more information) but not everyone is familiar with Google Knol.

Knol was created by Google as an answer to Wikipedia. Defined by Google as a unit of knowledge, Knol contains user-contributed articles on a wide variety of subjects. Knol was created in 2007 and was released publicly as a beta in 2008. Knol remains in beta testing.[1]

How is Knol Different from Wikipedia?

Ownership

Individuals that create a Knol retain ownership and control over that Knol. On Wikipedia, all Wikis are collaborative content and can be edited by anyone but Knol authors can decide whether to prevent or allow edits to their articles; authors can also allow only specific people to edit their Knol.

Copyright/Licensing

Owners of Knols can select from several licensing options which range from "some rights reserved" to "all rights reserved."[2] This is a stark difference from Wikipedia, where all content is deemed to be in the public domain. Through licensing, Knol authors can specify how others are allowed to use the work, allow use for non-commercial purposes only, control whether others may expand or modify the work, and so on.

Knol is For-Profit

If Wikipedia (and its parent company, the Wikimedia Foundation) is a not-for-profit organization, then Knol is its exact opposite, with profit being the driving force for both Google and Knol contributors. Google allows Knol owners to embed Google AdSense advertisements on their Knols. Google, of course, takes its share of the ad revenue, but the revenue generated from specific Knols is also shared with the Knol owner. By giving Knol authors a cut of the ad revenue that is generated from their site, Google has provided incentive for authors to write quality content--after all, the more people who view the content, the more ad revenue that will be generated.

One Wiki, Many Knols

On Wikipedia, there is only one Wiki entry for each subject.[3] The content for each subject represents a collaborative effort between all contributors to that particular Wiki. Multiple Wikis on the same subject are often merged in an effort to make each Wiki a central collaboration point on any particular topic.[4] With Knol, authors are encouraged to create new Knols on topics that already exist. These Knols are maintained separately and consumers may choose from several different Knols on the same topic.

Freeconomics

Content on both Wikipedia and Google Knol is free to the consumer. When it comes to how the two are able to provide their respective services for free, however, the two have very little in common. Wikipedia operates based on the idea of a gift economy, wherein money is not a motivating factor.[5] Wikipedia operates as a tax-exempt non-profit organization funded through donations.[6]

Google Knol on the other hand, is a for-profit venture, and as mentioned in the Knol is For-Profit section above, makes money from advertisement revenue. Google Knol also has an almost zero marginal cost of distributing Knol content. Knol has no costs for authors or editors and, of course, Google already has a large web presence, so the costs to maintain Knol servers and Internet connectivity are minimal. Not all Knols have advertisements (Knol owners can choose to enable or disable them) but the revenues generated from the Knols that do have them would easily cover the near-zero cost to host Knols without advertisements. With a near zero marginal cost to host a Knol and a seemingly infinite number of potential contributors and topics, Google has harnessed the power of the long tail.[7]

Additionally, Knol takes the idea of labor exchange to a new level. Collaborative on-line encyclopedias are the ultimate form of crowdsourcing, and Google has found a way to harness the "wisdom of crowds" and turn it into a profit.[8]

Can Knol and Wikipedia Coexist?

With Google Knol still in beta (as of July 2009), it may be a but premature to declare a winner between the two (or even if there needs to be, perhaps the two can coexist together peacefully), but there are a few important things to consider:

  • Wikipedia was created in 2001 and has over 13,000,000 articles in more than 260 languages.[9] In contrast, Knol has only been around since 2008, and has only 100,000 articles (as of January 2009).[10]
  • Knol employs a disruptive technology that potentially takes would-be contributors to Wikipedia and entices them to contribute to Knol instead to reap the benefits of shared ad revenue.
  • Knol may have tied its hands by choosing to not manipulate how Knols are ranked by the popular Google search engine.[11] In a non-scientific experiment by this author, Google searches were conducted on ten topics known to have contributions in both Wikipedia and Knol. In all ten cases, the Wikipedia articles appeared on the first page of the search results and the Knol entries were not found at all. If Google used the power of the worlds largest search engine to promote Knol search results, Knol may appear to be a more viable host for content than Wikipedia.[12]

References

Retrieved from "http://wiki.wsu.edu/wsuwiki/Google_Knol_vs._Wikipedia"
Personal tools