Google has launched Knol, its Wikipedia alternative that holds authors accountable for the articles they write. Each article is created by a team of authors who receive attribution, and are allowed to take part in a rev-share for AdSense ads on their page. Other users can submit changes, but they have to be approved by the article’s original authors before they go live on the site (it’s basically a moderated Wikipedia).
Google says that it will allow multiple people to create Knols on the same subject. Knol allows users to rate and review Knols, and will likely include ranking as part of search results so we don’t have to sift through countless articles on the same topics. You can see an example article (a Knol that tells you how to write Knols) here.
The big news here is that by assigning ownership and allowing authors to include AdSense ads on their articles, Google is effectively offering a monetary incentive to create good content. In theory, the best articles will get the most attention, and in turn the most revenue.
Photo by Google.
Google Launches Knol, The Monetizable Wiki
July 28, 2008 by Rich | 1 Comment
In Google, Information, Internet
Chad on July 28th, 2008 at 10:15 am
It will be interesting to see how many self-serving links authors include in the articles, regardless of whether it is no-follow. I have already come across a few articles that seem a little too spam-oriented.