Although it is frowned on by some, I personally find Wikipedia quite a good source of reference material for my blogging. Of course I have to use common sense, and will try not to refer to an article that is just way off base. The rule of thumb of when in doubt check the references works fairly well.

Now Google has started a web-based encyclopedia-like service called “Knol”. Knol contains a number of knols. A knol is defined by Google as “a unit of knowledge” or “an authoritative article about a specific topic“. So far there seem to be a number of medical articles (some about medical conditions I’d rather not know about).

Now, personally I’m a fan of Google in that I Gmail and some of their other free software, both web-based and downloadable. This doesn’t mean that I think that everything that Google does is wonderful. In the case of Knol I’ll reserve judgment and continue to use Wikipedia while keeping an eye on Knol.

There seem to be varying views of Knol, from it being a possible Wikipedia killer “Google’s Knol Finally Goes Public. A Wikipedia Killer?” from InformationWeek’s Google Weblog, to it being “Wikipedia-for-cash” as Jack Schofield refers to it in his technology blog on the Guardian newspaper website.

Meanwhile you can pickup the “Encyclopedia Britannica 2008 Deluxe” DVD right here on Pricgrabber.com.

Posted on July 27th, 2008 by mervyn