Comments on: Google vs. Wikipedia

By: Debasish

Debasish — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 05:37:50 +0000

The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. Google will not serve as an editor in any way, and will not bless any content … For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject.

I think this has already been invented… oh yeah – it’s called the Internet.

By: Dood

Dood — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:52:01 +0000

Google was supposed to replace Yahoo Mail, supposed to replace eBay, supposed to replace Paypal, etc….

Google always gets too much credit from it’s fanboys and stockholders.

By: AMERICAN NONSENSE » Midday Open Thread

AMERICAN NONSENSE » Midday Open Thread — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:16:09 +0000

[...] is going into competition with Wikipedia with “Knol.” Henry, Eszter and John Quiggin at Crooked Timber consider its strengths, weaknesses, and prospects for [...]

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:17:51 +0000

HURRY UP AND MAKE THIS THING. I HAVE STARTED UP MY ARTICLE ON JUDGEJUDY.KNOL.COM

By: Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » knolcats: i’m in ur pedia, innovatin ur ass

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:14:07 +0000

[...] You thought Google wouldn’t notice… There have been some short posts by Esther and Henry at Crooked Timber, and all of us want to hear what Siva will say, since he’s made it his new [...]

By: Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » knolcats: i’m in ur pedia, innovatin ur ass

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:14:07 +0000

[...] You thought Google wouldn’t notice… There have been some short posts by Esther and Henry at Crooked Timber, and all of us want to hear what Siva will say, since he’s made it his new [...]

By: Tom Lynch

Tom Lynch — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:55:14 +0000

I don’t like the idea of a competent corporation friendly to the organised prioritisation of political perspectives running a de facto free encyclopedia for all.

Google’s collaboration with the Chinese administration on censorship, and even just its sponsored links at the top of the page, are enough to bother me.

When I was a kid at primary school the only encyclopedias we had were the firmly US-oriented “World Book” range. I’ve valued the internet, and Wikipedia, for not being like that.

The leading complaint about WP - that any hack can edit it fallaciously – might well be the dual of the leading complaint about a Googlepedia: no matter how cogent my knol is I can’t lift it into the top five on the rankings.

By: agm

agm — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:08:19 +0000

Just wait for the edit wars over the Grassy Knol.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:45:41 +0000

I was surprised by Seth’s comment as well. Like Henry, I certainly value and am curious about what Seth has to say on these topics.

By: Henry

Henry — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:40:47 +0000

seth – fair enough – but to the extent the club concerned is ‘the club of people who I find interesting and pay attention to on tech-meets-politics-issues’ you’re certainly in it.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:21:45 +0000

Henry, no offense meant, no personal implication intended. My reply was directed to what I saw as a broader aspect of Barry Freed’s point, which maybe I read into it when it wasn’t there.

By: conchis

conchis — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:42:31 +0000

I’m just surprised they didn’t try to call it a “gnol” instead (which would have been, at least conceptually, event closer to a troll).

By: Henry

Henry — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:29:52 +0000

Barry Freed / #5. Because I am not a “club member”. Seriously, that’s my problem. Without such a membership, generally nothing I say will be considered within the system. Metaphorically, I explored applying for membership a few years ago, and decided remaining a programmer was a lot better for me, and I already had group membership there. So I’ve pretty much given up on the matter.

Seth – that is a little weird as a response. When I saw Barry’s comment I was going to react by saying – “Yes, and Seth too, certainly.” As well as Nicholas Carr, who I see has just posted on this. It isn’t about club vs. non-club – the reason I immediately reached for Eszter and Siva’s names is that both of them have major research projects on the politics of search/Google etc – while I understand this is an interest of yours, it seems to be one among several.

By: ~~~~

~~~~ — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:53:59 +0000

This is no way to beat Wikipedia. I suspect a template {{knol}} is being created right now and will be added to the external links section of every relevant article a few minutes after the first knols appear.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:27:18 +0000

I've posted a separate entry as a response, because I had too much to say and it would've made for a ridiculously long comment.