In a not very innovative move Google is going to try to copy Wikipedia's shtick with a soup-to-nuts, online, user-generated encyclopedia of all human knowledge dubbed Knol that's currently being beta tested by a reportedly small group of invitees.
Contributors, who are supposed to sign their pieces, not be anonymous like Wikipedia - a good thing - will be able to monetize their individually written, Creative Commons-licensed articles with ads, sharing the revenues with Google. Google will provide the tools and rank entries. Fact checking will supposedly be left to the readers - (who will go to the library and look things up in a book?). Wikipedia currently has 8.2 million articles written in 200 languages. Tit for tat, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been working on a for-profit Wikia search engine due out any minute now.
About Maureen O'Gara Maureen O'Gara is the Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL NEWSLETTERS
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR RSS FEEDS & GET YOUR SYS-CON NEWS LIVE!
Click to Add our RSS Feeds to the Service of Your Choice:
.gif)
In a not very innovative move Google is going to try to copy Wikipedia's shtick with a soup-to-nuts, online, user-generated encyclopedia of all human knowledge dubbed Knol that's currently being beta tested by a reportedly small group of invitees. 
