Posts Tagged ‘Knol’

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It was the system that would rival the Wiki world. Google launched a Beta of their online knowledge system called “Knol”. It was a lot like Wikipedia, except this system would have online advertising. The advantage (at least that some would call): contributors had an opportunity to actually make money off their knowlegde.

Knol stands for “A unit of Knowledge”. It was in Beta until January 2009

Other items in Tech History this week:

• IBM Goes Open Source – Sort of.
• Google and Digg were rumored to be in talks
• Carl Icahn joins Yahoo’s Board of Directors
• Trans Atlantic TV Broadcast with host Walter Cronkite.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:15 — 16.6MB)

Everyone puts them out; the best – and worst – of 2007, all in one article. And Geekazine is no different. However, we’re taking a slightly different approach. It’s more of a look back to see what has happened in the last year and maybe some hints for what should be done in 2008. Gets you wondering what items you lived without a year ago and what you can’t live without today. So without further ado….

Let’s start with the beginning of the year. It was good. PS3 came out in the console wars, and it was predicted that it will win out of the 3 game systems. That still has to happen. SSD was introduced at CES, and it was tech that is long overdue. The static drives can reduce heat, battery consumption and wait times loading the machine. The technology is slowly coming down to earth prices, and when it does, watch out America.

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Knol – Cnet
Ribbit? – Digital Trends
SSD in your Gadgets? – Cnet
USB DRM Restriction? – Wired
OpenOffice Online Goes Beta – ArsTechnica
Commodore Apple II – Yahoo

On Geek.com:

Replay TV bought out
Playstation Pre-Pay Cards
Vista Biggest Tech Dissapointment?

Microsoft on Ebay – PCPro
Background Check your Credit Card – TheStreet
GM Saves Millions on Heat – Network World
Match.com on Facebook – New York Times
Video Bandwith – ZDNet
Sony vs. Activision on Price – 1up
RIP Web2.0 Office – Active Network
Viewing others files – Techdirt
Adobe Opens up AMF – ArsTechnica
Voice2TXT – Network World
PS2 still the most popular – IGN
We Google ourselves – Computerworld
Wordpress vs. others – ZDNet
More Apple Patches – PC World
Blackberry Store – CBC
Why Mac didn’t ship with GPS – Macenstein
3.2Gbps Firewire – Electronista
Defining Products of 2007 – ExtremeTech

Ten Year Watch:
Blogging

20 Year Watch:
Perl

Thanks:
A Couple of Admins
pineviewfarm

Of Note:
SanDisk Photo Album
Cool Bridge and Bar
IPodcicle
LiquorLock
9 Clever Business Cards
10 Worst Gadgets 07
3 million users on wincustomize
N64 Tie-fighter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (30.4MB)

From Early days, man has tried to collect and record information and put it in an easy to read volume set to sell to the masses for profit. Well, maybe not like that, but it’s turned into a business. Since the inception of the internet, an online encyclopedia has been attempted and with Wikipedia, some will say it’s a great resource for free. Now Google wants in on it by creating their own online knowledge base called “Knol”. Is this really a good idea or should we focus efforts on what is out there already?

Yeah, I Remember the Encyclopedia Britannica kid? This was an ad back in the early 90’s featuring a kid and an announcer that promoted the multi-volume Encyclopedia Britannica. The kid, Donavan Freberg, and the announcer, his dad – Stan Freberg were the duo that promoted this volume library.

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