© 2007 Stewart Butterfield, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio
That is the question of the day, isn’t it? With so much talk about whether or not this new service is the Wikipedia-killer or a threat to Squidoo, thought-leaders (and potential experts) everywhere have to be turning that question over in their minds.
I have to say, I certainly am. The problem is, Knol is such a new tool, even though Google’s done an admirable job trying to define how the process works and what a good product looks like, no one really knows what to do with it yet, much less what to think of it. That’s because what will really define Knol is user involvement.
And you better believe Google knows that.
In a world where content is king, Google’s new service simply can’t survive much less become a threat to anything without thoughtful participation from a crowd of established experts. The reason for this is simple: That’s the added value Knol supposedly brings to users – expertise.
Google’s position is that they are answering some of the problems with the totally open Wikipedia format. How? By having experts write the content.
Trouble is, to get as much content as they need for Knol to become a go-to web destination, Google doesn’t have – or most likely even want – any sort of system of checks and balances in place to define or even suggest exactly what an expert is.
The good news is that the beta group of Knol writers seem to be pretty well defined as experts (interestingly, most of them are in the medical field). But Google’s now opened up the service, so anyone can sign up for a profile and begin Knolling away – on basically any topic they so desire. Think you’re an expert at baking pecan pies? By all means, no one’s written a Knol about that yet, so take your best shot. It’s a wide open world right now. An appealing place to dump some time and effort into creating your authoritative masterpiece.
Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention that Google has solved the anonymity problem by requiring Knol writers to verify not only that they are human but also that they are writing under their true name. Of course, this check may stop some in their tracks. The required info to identify your name includes phone number and address. So now, Google knows even more about you. And it’s verified. Will they do anything with this? The company says no, but time is all that will tell.
So for all your data and expertise, what do you get in return?
The answer to this question is a bit unclear at this point. But, the good news is, at least there’s something. It looks like Knol’s banking on the appeal of creating symbiotic relationships with content creators. You write free content for Google, and if it’s good enough content, you may become known as an expert. But just writing a Knol isn’t enough to win the expertise. The service anticipates (and I would think encourages) multiple entries on the same topic. So you’ve got to write the best content.
So how will your Knol become successful? Also unclear. According to Google, Knol is intended to help solve a search problem. So there’s not really any system of organizing or promoting Knol content right now.
There does seem to be the potential to direct traffic through links. Although there does appear to be a nofollow in place, so you can’t juice the authority of say, your own blog, even if you write a really killer Knol.
What you may get, if you write a good enough Knol, is some cash.
At this point, one thing you’re sure to get by writing a Knol is – practice at writing a Knol. In fact, by jumping in and writing a Knol, you may even become a Knol expert. And if Knol takes off like it could, this could be an interesting new industry/niche.
So, are you already brainstorming the topic of your first Knol, or are there too many unanswered questions at this point?
There it is. To Knol or not to Knol? What do you think?
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More on the Great Knol Debate:
There too many unanswered questions at this point in my opinion. There are differences between Knol and Wikipedia (e.g. – one expert author vs. collaborative content) but I think there has to be more incentives available for an expert to write and review comments/update content for Knol to be really successful. However you can’t dismiss it offhand since it is a Google product. The question is how much effort is Google going to expend on it. They have quite a few other experimental products out there that just seem to be languishing. Google has so many products now that it almost appears to me as though they’re not focused enough on their core technology (search).
I did a Google search to find the genesis of the catch phrase ‘knol’ and found it on a Wikipedia page to be a unit of knowledge which I found amusing. In summary I think Google needs to differentiate Knol from Wikipedia as an alternative source of knowledge rather than a competitor in order for Knol to be a success.
@ Mark – Interesting points. I found it really interesting yesterday that yesterday, Google’s Knol site came up at #7 on a search for the term – today, it’s at #5. Of course since it’s a Google product, there’s been a ton of hype and promotion. But Google could easily have pushed it to #1 and they didn’t.
Anyway, I agree that there’s not a ton of answers at this point. That’s why I wanted to start this discussion. ProBlogger had a great story that took the questions to another level all together – is Knol a BLOG killer?
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/07/24/googles-knol-a-wikipedia-killer-or-a-blog-killer/
It’s also interesting to me that Google defines a Knol as “A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.” But doesn’t say how/whether the actual content will be vetted in any form.
If it’s not, than other than being individual owner “controlled” it’s really not that much different than Wikipedia. Or so it seems.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But then the question sort of becomes, how long is too long to wait? Because if Knol becomes the place to go, then the people who get there and build authoritative content first are going to presumably benefit long term, right?
It is up to everyone and that’s it
Tiffany,
A very interesting article on Google’s Knol in yesterday’s (8/11/08) International Herald Tribune.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/11/technology/
11google.php
It deals with many issues regarding the media content they own, their search portal, and the ads they distribute. Knol is more media content in addition to their existing Blogger, YouTube, UseNet, Google Groups, Google Finance, etc. Google’s media content is competition to other media companies and Google’s search is being questioned for any possible bias. Google’s business partners are also looking closely for any conflicts of interest between their media content and Google’s media content.
Mark