With up to 30% of Google/Yahoo searches returning links to Wikipedia, Google sees an enormous non-adsensed space. The traffic of Wikipedia makes ad providers salivate. To combat this untapped market, Google opted to create a service called
Knol, where
articles can be written by
experts (sometimes). Is this sounding familiar to anyone?
Anyone can create a knol and invite others to contribute. If several people decide to write a knol on Change Management Strategies, both are allowed to exist. The community can vote and rate article quality. Authors of knols can also add Google's adsense service to the site and make money in the process.
Although not academically focussed (no impact factors here) - more of a series of how to's and general knowledge this feels like an important development in the publishing of knowledge on the web.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Google is essentially stating that individual ownership of articles is important. I will be even more interested to learn how permanent these knols are and if they might be a assigned a Permanent URL such as a DOI.
How will knols be listed in Google searches? Will they receive better search returns than Wikipedia or Emerald Full Text articles?
The idea is well conceived. The service seems to function well, without the hideous editing text of mediawiki/Wikipedia. Feedback loops are in place through comments and ratings.
The opportunity for economic gain will likely also draw some participants. All those factors combine to suggest Knol has a real chance for success. Knol represents real and present disruptive force for pubishers I think.
Currently, the resources on the site are quite scarce, however I expect this to alter over the coming months.