San Francisco — Google’s Knol, which has been portrayed by some as a would-be Wikipedia-killer, Google Inc. on Thursday made its version of communally-constructed online knowledge-sharing site multi-lingual, this time in German, Italian, and French.
The success of Google’s free of charge Knol service has floundered since its launch in July and the site has often been criticized for featuring articles that could help it better compete with Wikipedia, which is consistently ranked among the most visited websites on the Internet.
Justifiably, Knol has only been released for a few months now, and it apparently takes much more time than that to build a repository of the world’s collective knowledge.
Expanding into other countries the Internet search powerhouse is alluring people to submit written “knols,” that could give Google some more momentum and increase the numbers of expert articles significantly over time, in those languages as well as in English.
“Our aim is to inspire people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it,” Google vice president of engineering Udi Manber said at the unveiling of the Knol service.
“There are millions of people who have power over useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it.”
Similar services are permitting user sourced content like Helium, Squidoo, WikiHow and Associated Content, though they have yet to release international versions, which could give Google a nice head start.
While Wikipedia allows visitors to alter its online pages, trusting that people with accurate information will correct errors and misleading entries, Google invites folks to author their own articles.
Pictures of authors are shown on their knol web pages. Editorial task rests with authors, whose reputations are at stake, according to Manber.
Whilst Wikipedia mixes up topic entries into single articles, knols written on the same subjects remain separate and “compete” for the attention of visitors, who can give online feedback. Knol writers have the option of allowing Google post ads on their pages and sharing in the revenues.
And in all fairness, Google has always been good about translating its products and services into different languages. Moreover, what is unpopular in one country may not encounter the same reaction in another, and the move follows a bit of a pattern since Street View has covered both Italy and France in the past couple of weeks.
Another big aspect in Knol’s favor is the unsteady world economy. The site’s revenue-sharing scheme should become more and more attractive if people are being squeezed by job losses and inflation.
Google is the world’s most visited Internet search engine and an established master at mining revenue from online advertising targeted at those making queries and using its free Web-based services.
Tempting Wikipedia users to its own community-produced online encyclopedia promises to be another rich vein of ad income for the US Internet search giant.
Let us watch and see what happens with the freshly released multi-lingual Knol.