Opinion: Googlepedia goes live

This time the Don't Do Evil (unless we can turn a buck out of it) company has Wikipedia in its corporate sights, with a grassy thing called Knol.

Knols are, apparently, "authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects". Beg your pardon. Nothing like Wackypedia then.

Google product manager Cedric Dupont explained that the key principle behind the new repository of information was authorship. "Every knol will have an author, or group of authors, who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good."

And here comes the kicker. If you like, you can have Google ads plastered all over your knol. And if anyone reads your ramblings, and responds to the adverts, you'll get a share of the revenue.

Well that's bound to encourage balanced and unbiased entries, isn't it?

Whatever next? The Oxford English Dictionary, sponsored by Red Bull? The Encyclopedia Britannica, in association with Domino's Pizza? The INQ running ads for... Oh, hang on...

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