1. Google will change the name, probably before it even launches. Not just because it's an ugly word. Google should have learned with Froogle that puns don't translate and that you don't make up new words if you want to keep brand loyalty. (Froogle became Google Product Search, which became Google Shopping). They'll end up calling this something simple. My guesses:
- Google Encyclopedia (in your face, Wikipedians)
- Google Library (in your face, librarians; perhaps too similar to Google Books)
- Google Answers (taken?)
- Google Articles (more likely)
- Google Reference (most likely)
- Google Homework (isn't that what this is for, anyway?)
2. Google won't attract real experts unless they pay real money. Andrew Keen is swooning over knol because Google promises to pay the authors. But ad revenue won't be real money unless you write one of the few most popular articles -- and subsequently spend much of your time responding to comments and keeping it up to date. Who but family (is it coincidence that their sample author shares a last name with their lead engineer?) or those truly hard up for cash (bloggers and journalists probably aren't expert enough to qualify) will go for this? If a subject expert wants to earn some cash they'll write a magazine article. If they want prestige and publicity or to summarize knowledge in their field they'll write a survey article for a journal.
Recent Comments