It seems the Internet giants have their sights set on the genius that is Wikipedia. But this time, they’re choosing competition over acquisition; once again showing signs of opening up a whole new project, titled Knol (for Knowledge…) But who can blame them? In the wake of their immensly successful (and, one can imagine, sickeningly lucrative) online endeavours, The Beast now has its sights set on the glistening geek Mecca that is Wikipedia. Yes, Google (in what, if undertaken by almost any other company, would be seen as a blatant act of almost reckless suicide) is preparing to challenge Wikipedia by opening up their on Wikipedia-esque site of knowledge and user participation. Ditching, however, the collaborative nature of Wikipedia’s user-editable articles and replacing them with a system where one person creates an article and the users simply vote on it if it’s of high quality. Therefore, the good articles bubble to the top - representing the web site as a whole - while little Jimmy’s view-of-the-world article on how Christopher Columbus was in fact a trans-sequal penguin stays hidden in the depths. But why, I wonder, would Wikipedia’s user-base (being, one would assume, smarter than the average shmuck), already entrenched in the silky-smooth sanctuary of Wikipedia, scurry over to a less “open source” service run by Satan? (I kid, I kid - who can deny what Google has contributed to the Internet.)
What bugs me, though, is not that Google is doing it, but that Google is doing it and that they will succeed. And that really pisses me off. Knol is currently under private Beta. If I get an invite (god knows I wont) you can all point and laugh as my moral high ground collapses before your very eyes in a matter of seconds, as a scurry across the room squeeling “Google” and wearing a paper hat. Adios.
Read the short but concise article on Lifehacker (linked above in shiny blue title lettering) to find out more.
