Knol
It looks like Google is set to reinvent Wikipedia. Given their track record, that’s a good thing. They have both the knowhow and the resources, and I’m sure they’ve learned a great deal from the mistakes of the Wikimedia Foundation.
- I guess “Knol” sounds better than “Googlepedia”
But there’s a catch. The aforementioned blog post also states:
At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of those ads.
Now, I’m a hardcore capitalist and I’ll be the last to deny that authors of useful content deserve acknowledgement and retribution. However, at the very least, it’ll be interesting to see them tackle abuse. Sure, they’re the almighty Google, but there’s only so much even they can do.
Incidentally, in Dutch, “knol” is a pejorative description for a horse, among other things. I’m sure they’ll come up with a better name.