Nicholas Carr : Rough Type, Google Knol takes aim at Wikipedia Options

[Newsfood]

Nicholas Carr : Rough Type

Google Knol takes aim at Wikipedia. December 13, 2007.

"For the past year, Chief Wikipedian Jimmy Wales has been doing a lot of trash-talking about taking on Google in the search business. Now Google's striking back."

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2007/12/...le_knol_tak.php

[Daniel Brandt]

I'm no fan of Google, but this is good news. If Google is serious about this (it's difficult to distinguish Google's press hype from its market strategy), then the time to begin pinching Wikipedia's air supply in the rankings is right now. Actually, I don't mean "strangle" so much as I mean "neutralize Wikipedia's insane internal linking and treat them like a normal website."

Though it might look like "strangling" to Wikipedia, all most of us want is for Google to treat Wikipedia fairly in the rankings and give some other deserving information sites on the web a fighting chance. Now Google has its own selfish reasons to do this. It can be done slowly, but surely. Many of us know what it feels like to be on the other end of such a Googlopoly, and it will be a pleasure to watch Wikipedia squirm for a change.