Knol

Hot on my post on MedPedia comes the long-awaited (!) release of Google's wikipedia-competitor - Knol. You can read a review via this ReadWriteWeb article.

There seems a number of articles on health topics (aimed at consumers) and the author of the article is clearer shown (alongside their credentials) - addressing the main criticism of wikipedia; in that the authors are known. Users can suggest alterations - but the author needs to approve. A few exampl articles:

• Cancer genetics
• Cataracts
• Mitral Valve Disease

This will be interesting to watch to see if people prefer Knol or Wikipedia. A few years ago Google was perceived in a much more friendly light than it is now - so will users flock to suggest alterations and improve the articles? I think the possibility of payments (via google adsense) might just swing it...