Feeding the Knols?

I had a hard time coming up with that one! I've just learned about a new Blogger feature called Knol. Google defines a knol as a "unit of knowledge"; they certainly get points for creativity and new-ageism on that one.

So what are they? Knols are supposedly article based, so I'm guessing would look like a paper, essay, braindump, reference and such. The launch did not go unnoticed; The Daily Telegraph recently picked up on this project with the article: Google's 'knol' may challenge Wikipedia.

Challenge Wikipedia? You've got to admire news media for their never ending quest of sensationalism. I'm pretty certain that Google did not launch Knol with the intention of competing with WIkipedia in any way (I'm pretty sure they would just buy out the Wikimedia Foundation if they wanted to go down that route).

The basis is simple, its a closed system... not designed to be encyclopedic, but more journalistic... and I do see the attraction.

When I was considering my personal database deployment, I first considered using Blogger (and actually started to with Linux content) instead of the current wiki setup. I enjoyed the features provided by Blogger (especially the ease of posting), but was finally steered away because of the dirty editor and because it was more geared toward a blogged style of writing... if that even makes sense. Organising by date rather than content. Had Knol been around at that time... I may have reconsidered. So head on over to Google and read about Knol. You might even end up setting one up yourself.