Google Knol

It's been almost a week since Knol was officially launched by Google in answer to wikipedia. Or call it, a Knol is a new Squidoo. Google knol encourages people to contribute knowledge. Like Problogger refers, is this a wikipedia killer or blog killer?, it remains to be seen how Google uplifts the project in time to come. At knol, people can just write about their expertise and as Google Engineer Udi Manber, the soul behind Googlepedia Knol says:

Writes Google's Udi Manber:"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. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the authors. We hope that knols will include the opinions and points of view of the authors who will put their reputation on the line. Anyone will be free to write. For many topics, there will likely be competing knols on the same subject. Competition of ideas is a good thing. Knols will include strong community tools. People will be able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it. Knols will also include references and links to additional information."

Well, Knol is still just open to U.S. people and worldwide everyone is trying to make pages as they've not been specific on Knol. The name verification is only for people from United states and the credit card information is also with just the US info.

I tried to make a Knol here and spent time, writing and posting with errors when finally I found my mistakes as well as Knol's confusing and erroneous website layout that misguide a user. When my post was not visible, I sorted for a help file and realized that it called for verification and Knol is meant currently only for US users!

Anyways, this info will keep you updated. You can keep an eye on the upcoming wiki-cum-squidoo - a Googlepedia 'Knol' and take you to knowledge base platform to get yourself and your children more tech savvy as Knol will be carrying Knols from many wise experts. You can find more in Google Search on Knols here. An example is on Dyslexia by Sally. Another is, Understanding your kid's Text messages by Sara. A text lingo and chat lingo that parents aren't familiar.

- ilaxi patel
Editor, www.kidsfreesouls.com
Newspaper for kids