One advantage Wikipedia has over Google’s Wikipedia-inspired Knol: Its entries still show up much higher in Google’s (GOOG) own search results.
This makes sense, of course — the longer-standing Wikipedia entries should have more inbound links, and ultimately a better Google rank. And Google has no incentive to juice the results to give its own product a boost — if it ever got caught, it would cause its brand irreparable harm.
How do some new knols compare to their Wikipedia counterparts? Wikipedia (SAI 25 #2) did particularly well for nouns like "lung cancer" and "sunscreen," while Knol’s how-to articles like the much-ballyhooed "toilet clogs" and "how to backpack" don’t really have Wikipedia counterparts. Search ranking as of Thursday evening:
| Search Query | Wikipedia | Knol |
| type 1 diabetes | 2 | 30 |
| lung cancer | 2 | 60 |
| toilet clogs | — | 3 |
| tooth pain | — | 14 |
| how to backpack | — | 3 |
| osteoporosis | 3 | 383 |
| sunscreen | 1 | 500 |
| coleslaw | 2 | 46 |
| floating floors | 6 | 500 |
| gl gg | 1 | 21 |
| barbecue | 1 | 37 |
| knol | 2 | 3 |
| eclipse | 5 | 500 |
Amusingly, if you search for "knol," Wikipedia’s entry still comes up higher in Google’s search results than the Knol project homepage.
