Audio experiments on Google Knol
October 6, 2008Google Knol is comparatively new when compared to services such as Mahalo and Wikipedia. Although it might not have received great reviews recently (Technologizer and Slate have published a few negative reviews of the website), they are still determined to work on new features that will make Knol stand out. For example, Knol can now ‘speak’ to the users (sometimes).
The website managers are experimenting with audio. In the manner of text-to-speech, the articles will now be read out to the users. This has not been implemented on all the articles as of yet and in fact very few articles have this. An example can be found here.
The speech voice and delivery is noticeably disturbing, but may work with improvisation. Once a few irritants like the audio delivery that is not steady enough are taken care of, the service will start to take off. Also, the distinction between sections, chapters or paragraphs is not proper. Abbreviations, acronyms, etc. are another thing that is not properly understood by the computer generated voice.
Although not perfect, and that is the reason they have not implemented it on all the articles, it is something new that they are offering and might help them to get Knol across to a wider audience.
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