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See the original image at physorg.com

Google Unveils Reference Tool After 7-month Test

physorg.com — Now anyone with a Google login will be able to submit an article and, if they choose, have ads displayed through the Internet search leader's marketing system.

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  • bbart3d, on 07/24/2008, -5/+34I hope Google doesn't start acting like Microsoft in the early 1990's. Copying everyone else's good ideas.
    • fr0ng, on 07/24/2008, -0/+7Why copy when you can simply buy?
      • kingofpap, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1from what i hear wikipedia has no intentions of selling to anyone. aren't they even working on their own search engine too? content and real language search engine i think
      • Ratatosk, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1copy? This is neither a copy nor a direct threat to wikipedia... it's a different system of sharing knowledge and the 2 of them can live along each other with no problem. I also don't think google wants to "kill" wikipedia; they love it as much as anyone else
    • sockpuppets, on 07/24/2008, -2/+30I hope Google doesn't start acting like Microsoft in the early 1990's. Copying everyone else's good ideas.
      • nmckinlay, on 07/24/2008, -0/+12I see what you did there :)
      • postitnote, on 07/24/2008, -0/+10nmckinlay, I'll give you $10 for that comment.
    • thailand1972, on 07/24/2008, -2/+2You hope they don't START?
  • timeisapear, on 07/24/2008, -0/+19If anyone could figure out a way to monetize a successful wikipedia-type medium, it would be Google.
  • Paulish, on 07/24/2008, -4/+13Funny how phonetically close "knol" is to "null". A bit of foreshadowing perhaps?
  • Pottypotsworth, on 07/24/2008, -1/+22Rev up your spam engines in 3... 2... 1... GO!
  • dahstar, on 07/24/2008, -7/+1it is good tool but is not completed yet.and you should know every company want to have good business .In this particular case their is no deference between Microsoft and Google and ... .every company want to control computer stocks.
    • santaliqueur, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2Your picture looks exactly like I would imagine, after reading your post.

      Exactly.
  • rompom7, on 07/24/2008, -4/+7I can sorta see this working.. But I just don't see it taking off. I mean, on most occasions when you need to visit a Wikipedia reference, you usually would prefer a book or a journal -- it looks classier on your paper :P
    • HonoredMule, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2There's more to learning than proving that you have in fact learnt something...the world doesn't revolve around writing academic papers or the backing of such papers.
  • zachary80, on 07/24/2008, -0/+35http://knol.google.com/
    • dullnation, on 07/24/2008, -0/+25Thanks, its pretty retarded when there's an article about a new website and they don't include the url.
      • cliffr39, on 07/24/2008, -6/+0lol because you couldn't just hit google and ask it "KNOL" - it's the very first hit in the Sponsored Link
      • dullnation, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4That's beside the point. All one person had to do is post a link. They didn't and instead hundreds of people will have had to go through with that annoying incovenience.
    • nymphetamine, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knol
    • kymoie, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Did anyone else see the irony of putting 'Who needs a search engine? Ctrl+F' on a webpage created by google...?
  • krustie, on 07/24/2008, -0/+5I hope outgoing links have nofollow attached, otherwise it'll become a spam zone.
    • jeff419, on 07/24/2008, -3/+4***** nofollow. google didn't invent linking
  • MikeKnoop, on 07/24/2008, -0/+8The first article I've ever read on knol just now was about how to unclog your toilet. This should make an excellent wikipedia competitor!

    -Mike
  • Qewl, on 07/24/2008, -7/+3Google is going to buy wikipedia! The google empire grows
    • rompom7, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1Google can't buy Wikipedia, nor would they want to. It's a non-profit organization.
  • scipi0, on 07/24/2008, -0/+5This could prove to provide more accurate information. With users able to set the level of community collaboration, this could allow users who really know what they are talking about to get there stuff on paper. Then they can edit if someone brings an error to their attention. Nice work, google.
  • cdtoad, on 07/24/2008, -0/+6If Google has an algorithm to make sure the "truthiness" of the articles are as close to 100% as possible, then I'll use it.
  • Elias1, on 07/24/2008, -7/+101. wikipedia.com
    2. Copy
    3. knol.google.com
    4. Paste
    5. Profit.
    • booksnmore4you, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2Sorry, can't happen!

      The three ways to publish that Knol offers are all totally and forever incompatible with the GFDL.
    • rompom7, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1Ah-ha! I always wondered what the ??? meant.
  • zeazzz, on 07/24/2008, -5/+2Google is so hungry for Digg it is not even funny anymore.
    • cliffr39, on 07/24/2008, -1/+2How does this relate to Digg? It's more like widipedia...
  • sockpuppets, on 07/24/2008, -0/+6Why is everything on the knol home page some tragic, terrible disease?
    • Jp1138, on 07/24/2008, -0/+0Too much House?
    • chroko, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4Because the first contributors were hypochondriac obsessive-compulsives who had their articles deleted from Wikipedia?

      And it seems bad that there's no regulation process on the individual articles, beyond comments. Somebody can still be an expert in their field and have outdated information / subjective opinions about specific points.
  • panic, on 07/24/2008, -3/+3By "7 month test" do you mean they made it public 7 months ago and put a little "beta" under the logo? Last I heard google didn't test things.
  • Oea420, on 07/24/2008, -3/+3Hah.. I can already see hundreds of people copying wikipedia entries...

    They need to make user-submitted articles subject to a peer review system... I don't even know if you could choose these users out of the general population... or else you'd still have something akin to wikipedia. I think you'd have to hire professional editors, IMO, to make it successful....

    at least successful enough where you're able to cite it, unlike wikipedia.
    • booksnmore4you, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2Can't happen.

      People can publish on Knol with only CC-by, CC-by-nc, or All Rights Reserved. All three are totally and forever incompatible with the GFDL under which Wikipedia is published.
  • thailand1972, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2I made a knol, selected "publish", but when I use their search (within knol) it doesn't appear.
    • booksnmore4you, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2Mine took five minutes to turn up.
  • Andrwmorph, on 07/24/2008, -1/+5My favorite article is "How to make crystal meth"
  • Zanneth, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3It would be even cooler if Google joined with Wikipedia in making something that checks if an article is accurate or not based on a score.
  • law1ess, on 07/24/2008, -1/+2Free pics of chesticles on Knol:

    http://knol.google.com/k/mary-mcgrath/breast-augme ...
    • stanleyford, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4Dude, it's the _Internet_. The entire thing is made of pictures of boobs.
  • SPThom, on 07/24/2008, -0/+5Actually I see this more akin to "About.com" content than Wikipedia, at least so far. And Google can have at in trying to blow About.com out of the water... I hate that frigging site.
  • rharris, on 07/24/2008, -2/+3Why didn't Google just buy Wikipedia?
    • ElBeh, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3Wikipedia refuses to sell itself, otherwise Google would have probably bought it years ago, when it was still younger.
  • sayssimon, on 07/24/2008, -0/+0i'm not sure if i'm going to use something that isn't going to be as awesome as wiki.
  • Cyrock, on 07/24/2008, -0/+1Now if only they would unveil Grand Central, or just allow new beta accounts, or even allow us to change the phone number.
  • SaadGhouri, on 07/24/2008, -1/+1Let the Google pwnage begin! :D
  • peterjmag, on 07/24/2008, -0/+4I like how the Wikipedia article for Knol is higher in the Google search results than the actual Knol website.
  • JorgeGT, on 07/24/2008, -1/+2Until they add LaTeX support, what quality content can anyone publish? :S
  • keyme, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3Whoever writes the article about Viagra is gonna get very, very rich.
  • srodrigo, on 07/24/2008, -1/+0the site designer should get google-fired, looks grey and boring. An the "top" knols are so appealing to click anywhere in the site: lung cancer, tooth pain, toilet clugs, diabetes... Indeed a serious competitor for Wikipedia...
  • booksnmore4you, on 07/24/2008, -1/+1Bang....

    Bang...

    Bang...

    Those are the death nails being pounded into the Google-driven Wikipedia.

    Knol has a far superior model. I predict it will overtake Wikipedia in most areas within two years.
  • gregus802, on 07/24/2008, -0/+2Knol is something like eioba.com
  • hivesster, on 07/24/2008, -0/+3Today, Google introduced a new spam service to rival the spam on their "blogger" service. Google spokesperson Chris Dickerman says that the new Google Knol will "bring a sense of legitimacy to the spam on our site".
  • tammypowell01, on 07/25/2008, -2/+0Going to check out knol tonight and write a knol to test it out - looks cool and think it will be a serious competitor to Wikipedia in the future! Cheers, Tammy http://www.tammypowell.com
  • TheGhostMan, on 07/25/2008, -0/+1Uh don't you have to pay for ads? How will you get revenue for your articles?
  • quaffapint, on 07/25/2008, -0/+2For the fun of it, I just setup http://www.ontheknol.com to track Google Knol frontpage articles, similar to how other sites track Wikipedia.

    It's mostly health related articles so far from what I'm seeing.
  • dahstar, on 07/25/2008, -0/+0and your picture is like that what you say,nothing!
    • dahstar, on 07/25/2008, -0/+0excuse me it is replay to up comment
  • levertmarketing, on 07/30/2008, -0/+0I wish someone would take that Wikipedia country club down but I doubt it will be Knol.
  •  

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