I’m guessing people will just copy from wikipedia to Knol. I mean, what else?

Funny you said that. I think that was the first thing that came out of my mouth when I pulled up the service last night. There’s no doubt that this will happen, and people will try to make money from it with the ads.

I noticed that as well. Although it is designed to be a knowledge base rather than just an encyclopedia, which means both the how-to and encyclopedia-like articles both have a home on the site.

There are also a couple of articles in the true sense of the word, like one focusing in the venture of designing a self-driving car by its own creator, or a review of Devil May Cry 4. Such things would be immediately ruled out of the Wikipedia or Citizendium for various reasons (vanity articles, lack of objectivism, etc.)

Also, they enforced the definition of an article owner since you first reported about Knol in a way that practically rules out collaboration in editing. While it’s good that a person is in charge of an article, in certain situations it could be a disaster (”This article is mine, and I decide what it gets into it”, for example)

In any case, I still think it’s a interesting project, that will co-exist with the Wikipedia and similar sites.