The Road to Black: Is Knol a "Wikipedia Killer"?

Knol is Google's newest launch. It's a site where authors can write articles on any topics they like. "Knol," if you were wondering, is a neologism meaning "a unit of knowledge."

ProBlogger wondered whether Knol will be a Wikipedia-killer. I love Darren's ~~ministry~~ very helpful site, but I have to say that if he is even asking that question, then he does not know very much about Wikipedia.

Wikipedia may seem both wide and deep (with almost 2.5 million articles in the English version, more than twice as many as when I first started as an editor), but casual readers may not realize how much isn't there. The Wikipedia community loudly declares that it is not many things, among them "a publisher of original thought" nor a "manual, guidebook, or textbook." And while anybody is free to add to Wikipedia, they are not free to add anything they like to Wikipedia.

At least several hundred entire articles are deleted every day. Over 3000 pages were deleted in the last 24 hours (including articles, images, user pages, and all other types of pages). That's not counting content edited out of existing articles, which is immeasurable (literally — there's no way to tell from the logs).

I imagine that little of what will likely be found in the Knols will overlap with Wikipedia's scope. And virtually none of it will carry authority remotely like Wikipedia's. Since anybody with an Internet connection can change Wikipedia instantaneously, one might think Wikipedia would not have much authority, but the net energy put into keeping Wikipedia sound is far greater than the net energy put into Wikipedia misinformation and disinformation. And that is why so many people trust Wikipedia. (More than they really should; even Wikipedia rejects its own self as an adequately reliable source for Wikipedia.)

Knols may give About.com a run for its money, and may nudge a few Wikipedia articles around in the Google rankings, but Wikipedia is a behemoth that won't feel much from the little flies that are Knols.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Lenin_Nair 1p · 870 weeks ago

Ginkgo, thanks for your comment on CuteWriting. I very much appreciate it. Let me clarify my side. I said "wikipedia-ish" means 'like wikipedia' And the sentence would be "Knol is a content system like wikipedia, in which (Knol) people can contribute on anything and get paid. But you notice that obvious grammatical error, and being grammar-finicky, I can't let that in. So, I put 'Wikipedia-ish' only in that Knol is a content system.

You are most likely true in that Wikipedia may not be affected by Knol at all. I have also made that speculation citing other content systems like blog networks, About.com, etc. But we should not forget that Knol is a Google product, that means it's the son of the Web God. So, we have to wait and watch what really happens. In fact, it is even speculated that Wikipedia will get a huge hit, since most of its traffic comes from Google, and Google can bypass it well...

Thanks a lot. You have a great blog here. All the best blogging!

Lenin

+2 Vote up Vote down

Ginkgo100 38p · 870 weeks ago

There are definite similarities between Wikipedia and Knol, but I think they really are two different beasts. The biggest difference? You can't put just put anything you want on Wikipedia. Well, you can, but it's pretty likely to get deleted. Wikipedians are very, very fussy about what can appear on the site.

You do have a point about Knol being a Google product. It's already powerful just by virtue of its parentage.

Thanks for the comment and the kind words!