Google has announced the launch of a new project called Knol, which aims to be a repository of the world’s information. Each topic or page on the Knol is called “a knol” .
This borrows from Squidoo which is another management site. Google won’t act the editor in any way, and there will be nothing like an official knol for each topic. It aims only to provide the tools and the server space.
Knol, currently in beta version is open to users by invitation only. Google will also host ads on each knol.
The point to note is that authors will get a significant share of the revenues .There is a danger that driven by ad revenues, there might be a proliferation of knols on commercial topics like microprocessor architecture , fashion design,etc.
There is also another argument, that because editing rights are locked, knol might contain some biased viewpoints, or that they might contain outdated information. But still there are certain arguments in favour of this new model. Since authors will no longer be anonymous, they might keep their knols objective and updated. But then again, knols can be searched by search engines, and there are fears that Google may screwup its algorithms so knols feature at the top of search results.
