There are a lot of conflit of interest after Google Knol has been released. Google claims Knol to be its own unique idea. However, industry experts feel Knol is just a copy of Wikipedia with some money making features.
The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, surprisingly welcomed Google Knol stating, “The more good free content, the better for the world”. This answer can be one of the three reasons:
- Google threatened Wiki at gun point to give this statement
- Google might have had a quite deal with Wiki or paid a huge donation to the non-profit organization
- Wikipedia does not have any understanding of how Google Knol works
Well, if the answers are ridiculous so is the wiki statement. Knol is a definite rival to encyclopedia sites like Wikipedia or About.com. Knol is more like About as it has more individual rights and totally marketing-free.
Several search engine experts feel that Google has already given Knol a good Page Rank even before it was live. This helps any content on Knol to appear in top search results. This favouritism can lead to Google users losing trust on Google Search and also a lot of spamming. Even copied content from a good website gives high rankings in Knol surpassing the original.
Cedric Dupont, Google product manager stated that :Google is very happy with Wikipedia being so successful. Anyone who tries to kill them would hurt us.” Was he into politics before? The statement sounds too political after all anyone on their first gaze knows why Knol was created. Just two things in mind.
“Capture Wiki and About users and Make some money out of it”.