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History > 2007 > UK > Media (II)
Google unveils rival to Wikipedia
Search
engine has unveiled 'knol',
an online, user-generated reference work
that will
seek to usurp Wikipedia
December
14, 2007
From Times Online
Rhys Blakely
Google is
launching a rival to Wikipedia, the world’s most popular online reference work.
The new user-generated Google website, dubbed “knol”, will be free to read and
will invite “people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative
article about it”, Udi Manber, a Google engineer, said on an official company
blog.
Mr Manber added that “Google will not serve as an editor in any way and will not
bless any content. All editorial responsibilities and control will rest with the
authors.”
However, Google will play a role in deciding which individual entries – or knols
("units of knowledge") – appear at the head of the results on the Google search
engine, which is likely to be the most important access route to the new site.
The business case for building a online reference work that rivals the
popularity of Wikipedia looks clear cut.
In October, the non-profit Wikipedia, which relies on donation for funds, was
visited by 107 million people, or a third of the “active global internet
population”, according to Nielsen Online, the analysts. The figure made it the
eighth most popular brand on the web in terms of user numbers.
Google was the world’s most popular website, with more than 260 million users.
But its own reference work, Google Scholar was only the fifteenth most popular
site in its class, with about 4.5 million users.
Google's determination to reap advertising revenues from knol requires a major
departure from Wikipedia's editorial model.Authors will not be able to
contribute anonymously to knol and will not be able to edit each others’ work.
“We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make
better use of web content,” Google said.
Moreover, in knol, unlike Wikipedia, there will be no collaboration between
authors who may not know each other in the physical world. Whereas in Wikipedia,
readers find only one entry on, say, the First World War, in knol, each author
will submit a separate, competing piece.
The knol site – currently in a test phase – appears to have been designed to
stamp out the mischief-making that has blighted Wikipedia, the online
encyclopaedia that "anybody can edit".
Knol will pitch authors against each other, effectively creating a marketplace
for knowledge and advertising revenues.
An author of a knol entry will be able to choose whether or not to include
advertising on a particular entry. “If an author chooses to include ads, Google
will provide the author with substantial revenue share from the proceeds of
those ads,” Google said.
Mr Manber added: “A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing
someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read. The
goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical
information, from geographical and historical, to entertainment, from product
information, to how-to-fix-it instructions.
Google is also building in aspects of social networking sites. “People will be
able to submit comments, questions, edits, additional content, and so on. Anyone
will be able to rate a knol or write a review of it,” it says.
Wikipedia was founded in 2001 and now has more than eight million articles in
253 languages – from Afrikaans to Zazaki. It is one of the world's ten most
popular websites and, in contrast to Google, has refused to alter its policies
for different countries – something that has led Wikipedia to being repeatedly
blocked in states such as China.
Anonymous and sometimes malicious edits have threatened to undermine Wikipedia's
reputation. In 2005 John Seigenthaler, the founding editorial director of USA
Today, discovered that he had been linked to the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy by a Wikipedia article. Attacking the site, he called it an
irresponsible haven for "volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects".
Earlier this year, it emerged that a host of blue-chip companies had altered
their entries on Wikipedia in an attempt to cover up embarrassing episodes in
their histories. The discovery was made by WikiScanner, a site that traces the
source of changes to the world's largest online reference work by matching edits
to a database of the unique IP addresses of the computers that were used to make
them. Machines belonging to organisations including Wal-Mart, Disney, Sony, the
Labour Party, the CIA and the Vatican had been used to rewrite entries, it
emerged.
Google unveils rival to Wikipedia, Ts Online, 14.12.2007,
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/
business/industry_sectors/technology/article3050784.ece
11am
iTunes
UK offers hit TV shows
Wednesday
August 29, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk
Mark Sweney
Apple today
made top TV shows including Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy
available to UK users of its iTunes download store - threatening commercial
broadcasters in the process.
Apple is
charging £1.89 per episode through iTunes UK after signing deals with US TV
studios including ABC, Disney Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy.
The shows can be viewed on a PC or Mac, through an iPod or on television using
the Apple TV set-top box. It is expected that they will also be available on
Apple's iPhone when it launches later this year.
Programmes include Paramount Comedy's South Park and That 70s Show;
Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer; MTV's Laguna Beach
and Pimp My Ride; and ABC's Ugly Betty and Commander in Chief.
Analysts predict that Apple's move could threaten the digital download ambitions
of a number of UK broadcasters - such as Channel 4's 4oD.
"This is a massive threat to the commercial broadcasters, especially Channel 4
and Five, who have embarked on a paid download strategy of shows," said Arash
Amel, the senior analyst and head of broadband media at Screen Digest.
"It should also provide a significant challenge to Sky's attempts to sell
downloads via the Sky Anytime platform. The basic concept means that if you miss
a show one evening, you can buy it to watch on your iPod on the commute the next
day."
But Mr Amel warned that Apple may find it more difficult to achieve the success
in the UK with its TV download service than it has found in the US.
"The situation in the UK will be tougher for Apple than in the US because
broadcasters who have rights to hit American shows will be placing a lot of
pressure on the studios to make sure download-to-own rights are bundled into the
big fees the UK broadcasters have paid for first-run rights," he added.
Apple said the number of programmes it could offer via iTunes would grow.
"We are thrilled to bring TV programming to the iTunes store in the UK," said
Eddie Cue, the Apple vice-president of iTunes. "We have got 28 shows and expect
to continue to add more great programming."
Screen Digest predicts that the UK download-to-own market will be worth £65m in
2011, of which Apple is predicted to take 80%.
iTunes UK offers hit TV shows, G, 29.8.2007,
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2158210,00.html
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