Having tried and failed reinvent Sourceforge, Google will now try and fail to reinvent Wikipedia.

Called Knol, the project is of one piece with other efforts Google has ineffectively denied are monopolistic.

Knol has already called forth questions about Google's recent handling of potential Knol competitor Squidoo, and more questions will follow.

In handling Squidoo, Google:

• Imposed a hard-to-understand downgrade
• Applied a loosely justified filter
• Hit Squidoo with well-justified penalties
• Or took actions which deserve a characterization not listed here.

Whatever the final answer, a potential competitor for Knol was clobbered.

Google's increasingly monopolistic control over search-driven Web traffic is not strong enough to suppress additional debate.

Worse for Google, almost without regard for what they actually do, they will be suspected of attempting to illegitimately control the debate. They will be unable to quiet that suspicion. Nor will they be able obviate its damage to their core product.

The debate is driven by the fact that conflict-of-interest questions are legitimately asked. They strike right to the integrity of search that IMHO is Google's core product. Putting the reputation of their core product on the line for Knol was a mistake.