Adsense sponsored information mercenaries?

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:09:00 GMT

Has Google crossed a ‘content/competition’ line with it’s knol enterprise?

I always saw Google’s role as one that sat above the content of the web. I always imagined that Google was about finding content that other organisations and individuals created on the internet. Yet with their Knol undertaking they are effectively building an Adsense sponsored army to tackle wikipedia content themselves on their own network (also available on the Internet). I also wonder will all outside search engines get access to all of the information that Google has from using its tools to create the knols. Can Google say that this will not bias itself? Also should Google compete with the internet it searches, surely google should confine itself to meta data in this respect.

Also would Google have done this if Wikipedia had been using Adsense on it’s pages?

By the way I like the Knols idea, I like the idea of competition for Wikipedia, Squido etc.. I am just not sure its Google’s place to be that competitor, I am also unsure of Google’s real motives here. Has Google crossed a line here? let me know your thoughts.

* Update Umair thinks that knols will fail because Google can't build communities
(I would concur given their track record).

'Larry, Sergey, Eric - uhhhh...communities aren't tools'

He also questions the model vs wikipedia interesting.

Folknologist - knol tag

Adsense sponsored information mercenaries?