Google Knol – Now Also In French, German, Italian, …
Knol, Google’s communally-constructed online encyclopedia which has been compared to Wikipedia has quietly launched versions in other languages – while French, German and Italian are official, as TechCrunch observes, a Spanish version and a Korean version also seem to be lurking around there somewhere.
Knol hardly seems to be making a dent in Wikipedia’s traffic. And while Wikipedia is moving up in the credibility charts, Knol has had more than its share of hurdles to cross.
Will Knol be able to surpass Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is the epitome of collaborative crowdsourcing, letting visitors make changes to its online pages, and trusting the community to ensure accuracy.
Google on the other hand, invites people to author their own articles. Pictures of the authors on their knol pages are meant to ensure that they treat their responsibility with care. The authors also have the option of letting Google post ads on their pages in return for a share of the revenues.
In this economic downturn, will participation move away from the “free” economy? While participation may go down slightly, I doubt it will vanish. Wikipedia almost stands for all things pure, and that is what will continue to ensure its success … it will have to be very careful on its monetisation strategy however, given that there is one (go here for their first annual report).
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