14 DAY TRIAL // Four years ago Google had ambitions of taking on Wikipedia. In fact, it though it had an even better idea, instead of all manner of people writing everything they wanted on the site, it would have experts writing highly accurate articles.
As we all know, Google turned out to be right, Knol has taken over the world and few people even remember what a 'Wikipedia' is. Oh, wait, that's not exactly right.
Actually, Knol is getting the axe, Google has had enough and it wants everyone, including all those experts, out by October 1st next year. And to make sure people know they're not welcomed, everything will be removed from the site, though not from the servers, on April 30 2012.
Don't worry though, WordPress.com is more than happy to take you in. In fact, it's giving you the option or either going out on your own and install Annotum, a custom WordPress that should fit perfectly with Knol content, or welcoming you into its own loving hands over at WordPress.com.
"Starting today, those same authors can move their articles and collaborative journals to WordPress—and they have the power to choose whether to move to a self-hosted WordPress installation powered by the freely-available, open-source Annotum themes, or to have their Annotum-powered site hosted for free here on WordPress.com," WordPress.com announced.
"Knol will slowly shut down over the next year, and we’ve worked closely with Google, Solvitor LLC, and Crowd Favorite to make this transition as simple as possible," it said.
If you don't want the hassle of hosting your own stuff, WordPress.com offers a migration tool for Knol users. In fact, the tool is available via Knol itself and users will be given the option of moving all of their stuff over to the new home in a few simple steps.