Google vs. Wikipedia
Had to happen sooner or later
I’ve been extolling the virtues of wikis at work, as our network guru is planning a college-wide tech wiki. In this process a few people have learned of Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia which is, I feel, a fantastic resource. Now Google is gunning for Wikipedia by proposing an online knowledge base of their own.
The system will centre around authored articles created with a tool Google has dubbed “knol” - the word denotes a unit of knowledge - that will make webpages with a distinctive livery to identify them as authoritative. Mr Manber wrote: “A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.”
This can only be a good thing for those of us who enjoy access to vast stores of information. Just one little quibble… they’re calling the articles “knols”. Add that to “blog” and “wiki” and a host of other internet-driven words that just sound ridiculous to me for some reason.
Google decides what is authoritative?
Brittanica tried that before.
Posted by Ted on 12/15/07 at 10:46 PMNice to see google in the field…
Posted by Poster Lover on 12/19/07 at 12:15 AM
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