Google Knol Goes Public

July 23rd, 2008, 3 Comments »

As you’ve probably heard, Google Knol launched publicly today. It’s considered a more or less direct competitor to Wikipedia, as it permits anybody to author an article on pretty much anything. It doesn’t have the same degree of ‘wiki’ collaboration as Wikipedia, though–it’s more about individual experts. From the Google blog:

The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It’s their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.

With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call “moderated collaboration.” With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!

What’s the marketing angle? In the coming days, I anticipate a great land grab as people author ‘knols’ on topics that matter to them. They’re going to permit multiple knols, but I anticipate something of a first-mover advantage. If Google Knol takes off (and odds are that it will), then it’s probably a good idea to write a knol on a topic in which you’re an expert. Knols may not be direct traffic drivers, but they may help cement your expertise in the space.

Julie and I put together a knol on social media marketing. It needs work, but I think it’s a satisfactory start. If you have the time, please consider rating, reviewing, editing or commenting on it.

And now I must try to resurrect my blog on Google Knol.

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My New, Spur of the Moment Blog on Google Knol

December 14th, 2007, 4 Comments »

Google KnolAbout six or eight hours ago Yesterday (I lost a day somewhere), Google announced a new project which threatens the balance of expert content creation on the web. It’s called Google Knol (I’m not keen on that name):

Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.

For a while, I’ve been hunting around for a specific, technical, bloggable topic that I could sink my teeth into. Plus, I’ve wanted to mess around with the possibilities of monetizing blog content. This seemed like an obvious option, so I give you www.WriteGreatKnols.com. I’m going to take a shot at writing the definitive blog on Google’s latest fanciful endeavour. If it works, great. If not, no harm done.

It’s fresh off the (word)press, and in fact the domain may not even resolve for you for a while. Go check it out, if you’re at all interested (and I don’t blame you if you’re not) to hear some initial thoughts on the subject.

Here’s one random thought that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. The blog post was written by one Udi Manber, VP of Engineering at Google. The sample ‘knol’–which basically means ‘article’–is written by a Rachel Manber, a professor at Stanford. I’d guess that they’re related, and that Udi can rely on Rachel to skillfully deflect all interview enquiries and respect whatever NDA she signed.

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